The Dartmouth 01/31/19

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2019

VOL. CLXXV NO. 124

PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH 15 LOW -1

Four fraternities engage in winter rush

B y LORRAINE LIU

The Dartmouth Staff

OPINION

LEUTZ: RED, WHITE AND OFFENDED PAGE 6

CARAMICHAEL: DARTMOUTH DOESN’T BELIEVE PAGE 6

SZUHAJ: THE BUSYNESS EFFECT PAGE 7

ARTS

REVIEW: ‘POLAR’ IS A DISAPPOINTING YET ENTERTAINING MESS OF A MOVIE PAGE 8

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Four fraternities welcomed a total of 23 members over the winter rush that took place on Jan. 18 and 19. Compared to last winter’s 16 bids, six more bids were offered this winter, with Sigma Nu accepting the greatest number of brothers.

Two bids were extended at Alpha Chi Alpha, two at Kappa Kappa Kappa, 12 at Sigma Nu and seven at Zeta Psi. Tri-Kap joined the cohort of winter rush after being suspended for three terms since fall 2017.

Only four houses participated in the rush process during the winter term, as many other houses had already recruited their maximum

numbers of new members — determined by a house or dictated through an edict from a fraternity’s National Directorate — during fall rush, according to Interfraternity Council head of public relations Caleb Smith ’19.

“The fall term is when the largest amount of eligible new members choose to enter the rush process,” Smith wrote in an email statement. “Therefore, many fraternities have filled up the maximum amount of slots for new members by the end of the fall rush process.”

Winter rush also differs from fall rush with number of students SEE RUSH PAGE 2

Faculty to complete online Title IX training

By ARIELLE BEAK The Dartmouth

In the first week of January, the Dartmouth Title IX Office a n n o u n c e d i t l a u n ch e d a mandatory sexual violence prevention training course for school faculty, staff and postdoctoral scholars.

Kristi Clemens , the Title IX coordinator and Clery Act compliance officer, said that she while she recognizes the

online module is not the single solution to campus culture surrounding sexual assault, it “gives every staff and faculty member on campus a shared understanding and a shared language with which to talk about these issues.”

“It brings us all to the same foundation ... and then we can talk about the more important things — like the SEE TITLE IX PAGE 5

HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE

“One” sees unexpected levels of attendance

MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Green and black decorations adorned Class of 1953 Commons to celebrate “One.”

By CHARLES CHEN The Dartmouth Staff

“One” long awaited dining event occurred last night at the Class of 1953 Commons, starting at 4:30 p.m. and running throughout dinner until 8 p.m. The dinner was designed to expose members of the College community to local restaurants and eateries through the addition of dishes from various local restaurant menus to ’53 Commons for the night.

A long line of students that had queued up for t h e e ve n t ’s o p e n i n g were greeted with green lights illuminating the

e n t r a n c e, t h e b r i g h t green Dartmouth Dining Services’ inflatable tube man, and a “One” sign at the entrance to ’53 Commons. Later on in the night, Hollywoodstyle searchlights were even turned on outside the building. Inside the dining area, tables were decorated with black and white tablecloths and floral arrangements.

A “One” ice sculpture adorned the center of the food court.

D i n e r s re c e i ve d a menu at the entrance that featured food from 10 different local institutions. Seven of the 10 slated restaurants were

local eateries. The Skinny Pancake brought crepe makers and prepared its “SugarShack” and “Choco Nutty” crepes.

Morano Gelato brought three flavors of gelato; Noodle Station brought its “Asian Persuasion” noodles; Pine brought short ribs with potato gnocchi; Boloco brought mini vegetarian burritos.

Each restaurant took over a different station at ’53 Commons, and workers from each restaurant were assisted by DDS workers.

DDS also purchased pastries from the Dirt SEE ONE PAGE 2

Q&A with physics and astronomy professor Jedidah Isler

B y LUCY TURNIPSEED The Dartmouth

Jedidah Isler is a first-year professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth. She studies particle acceleration and blazars — enormous black holes that shoot highenergy jets of particles — and is dedicated to furthering the positions of women of color in STEM fields. In addition to being

the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Yale University, she is the founder of Vanguard STEM — a live, monthly web-series that features a panel of women of color in STEM discussing anything from research to advice.

Students are always talking about why they chose to attend this

school, but why did you choose Dartmouth?

JI: I chose Dartmouth because it had the combination of a rigorous program in [undergraduate] and graduate populations, and also because of the observational resources that were available. I’m an observational astrophysicist, so it’s really important that I be

able to actually observe the sky, and Dartmouth has a really competitive suite of instruments with which to do that. So for me, the combination of having folks that are going to be sharp and ready to do the work and the raw resources to do that same work SEE Q&A PAGE 3

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Fraternities welcome 23 “One” serves local Hanover dishes members this winter FROM ONE PAGE 1

interest that if you receive a bid from the house that you’re shaking out, you rushing, Interfraternity Council will accept that bid,” Acharya said.

At Sig Nu, current members of the president Yoga Acharya ’19 said.

According to an email from Chi fraternity held a vote after shakeout Heorot president Johnathon Ernsting to decide new members of the house, ’19, Heorot did not extend bids this according to Srere.

“If everyone is comfortable with winter because winter term creates schedule conflicts for potential new [the new members], then they are accepted,” Srere said. brothers.

Before every rush recruitment, “Most of the people who rush Heorot are athletes, and usually it works fraternities organize rush events where better for these athletes to rush in the students can “mingle and catch up with fall due to their schedules,” Ernsting brothers,” according Briggs, adding that most rush events take place in the wrote.

Sig Nu started to expand its house fall with a few in the winter and spring.

“I think [rush events] are definitely last fall, according to Sig Nu president fairly crucial Cole Srere ’20. events to attend if Compared to the “Many fraternities you’re interested five bids it offered in attending the in fall 2017, Sig have filled up the process in rush,” Nu extended maximum amount of he said. “It’s a bids to 41 new members this slots for new members really important way to show your past fall. Fifteen by the end of the fall own character students shook while also getting out at Sig Nu this rush process.” people in the winter. house to just Srere noted -CALEB SMITH ’19, know about you.” that Sig Nu Ru s h u s e s w i n t e r INTERFRATERNITY events are rush in addition COUNCIL HEAD OF PUBLIC sponsored by to fall rush to IFC and usually accommodate RELATIONS take place in the its membership spring and fall, expansion.

“Our house couldn’t sustain the according to Acharya.

Srere noted that rush events help immediate growth,” he said. “A lot of the people who rushed this term were freshmen decide the fraternity that actually people who wanted to rush they want to join.

“I personally found that most people last term, and we just couldn’t fit in who rush in sophomore year have that more than [41] people.”

Alpha Chi rush chair Trevor Briggs decided they are going to rush and ’20 said that its winter rush differs from they decided where they are going to fall rush due to the different members rush by the end of freshman spring” he said. “There’s less actual decision of the house at different times.

“Specifically, I think Alpha Chi tries making in the sophomore year before to really give the current sophomores rush.”

Srere said that Sig Nu’s new a bigger say in how rush goes for the winter,” Briggs said. “You’re a member members are adapting smoothly to of the house, and you have the ability their life at the fraternity.

“I love them all, they’re all great to make a decision on whether these kids are people whom you’d want to guys,” he said. “They seem to be fitting in really well.” be [with] in a house.”

Acharya cited creating new Fraternities opened their houses from 7 to 9 p.m. on Jan. 18. Students relationships and building tighter bonds then shook out at the fraternity that they with Dartmouth students as reasons for are the most interested in, a process that students to participate in Greek life.

“By and large, people come to Greek involves “[talking] to all the brothers for a little and ‘[shaking]’ everybody’s spaces and want to rush fraternities hand,” according to Matthew Levine because they want to meet other ’21, who shook out at Zete this winter Dartmouth students and become a part of the tighter community,” he but did not get a bid.

Acharya said that the shakeout said. “And spaces such as fraternities process shows a potential new member’s are places you can find that, and we’re actually happy that 23 students chose commitment to the fraternity.

“When you shake out, you express to join Greek spaces this past winter.”

FROM RUSH PAGE 1

Cowboy cafe for the event, but the restaurant itself did not attend.

Although Molly’s was listed on the menu as bringing mac and cheese and flatbread pizza, the restaurant did not attend the event. According to director of Dartmouth Dining Services Jon Plodznik, Molly’s dropped out at 11 a.m. on the morning of the event.

Jennifer Packard is in charge of marketing and public relations at Molly’s Restaurant and Bar, and said that due to numerous other responsibilities and events, the head chef was unable to fully commit to the event and decided to back out.

“They had approached us with interest, but we hadn’t committed 100 percent,” Packard said.

Tuk Tuk Thai restaurant also backed out of the event after initially expressing interest.

Roslin’s Asian Foods and foods from the College’s Courtyard Cafe and Collis Cafe completed the menu offerings.

Dhungjoo Kim ’19 attended the event, and said that although he enjoyed the food, the lines for

the food were too long. Other students in attendance had similar thoughts, praising the food quality but complaining of line far longer than other food court events.

The line for Pine at the “Ma Thayer’s” station stretched to the entrance of the dining area.

Other stations also had long waits.

According to Plodznik, over 2,300 community members attended, nearly a thousand more than the forecasted 1,425 diners on a given Monday night. He added that it was likely a record number for ’53 Commons.

“We had such a huge outpouring of people at the event,” Plodznik said, adding that over 500 people came during the first half hour.

Food suppliers were unprepared for the number of patrons in attendance.

“The food went a lot faster than we anticipated, and we went through a lot of product,” Plodznik said. He added that the original plan also didn’t account for students waiting in line for every single menu item.

However, regardless of the unexpected attendance level, vendors were still pleased with the

outcome.

“The participants from the vendors were very excited about feedback they received,” Plodznik said.

Community sales and catering manager at Skinny Pancake Danielle Paro said that the event was a success.

“It went great! It was busy throughout the whole event and students really liked the food!” she said, adding that Skinny Pancake would be open to future collaborations with DDS. Co-owner of the Noodle Station Samantha Chu said that she was pleased with the event and would also be open to future collaboration.

According to Plodznik, these events typically take several months to plan. The concept for “One” was conceived last November, when Plodznik and DDS staff dietitian Beth Rosenberger began reaching out to community members. He says that the name of the event “One” was initially inspired by the idea of a single dish from each restaurant.

Plodznik added that DDS hopes to repeat the “One” event next year.

DO YOU EVEN BENCH, SNOW?

CORRECTIONS We welcome corrections. If you believe there is a factual error in a story, please email editor@thedartmouth.com.

MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Benches on The Green were covered in fresh powder during the weekend’s snow storm.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Isler discusses black hole research FROM Q&A PAGE 1

made it a really strong combination.

I’m also very interested in the notion of the teacher-scholar model.

How did you become interested in the area of research you’re involved in, namely particle acceleration and blazars?

JI: I am always curious about the universe — I think it’s one of the most interesting things that we exist in. I’ve always thought that black holes were really interesting, so when I found out in graduate school about these massive black holes that were somehow able to spin up these jets, which are really just accelerated particles, I just wanted to understand more about them. I couldn’t believe, really, that they existed or that you could study them directly.

What tools do you use in your research?

JI: I use directly imaged data from the environment around these blazars.

I get the material from the South African Large Telescope, which is in South Africa and Dartmouth is a collaborator on, and I use the MDM Observatory, also partly owned by Dartmouth in Arizona. I also use data that comes from other observatories around the world and from other space-born observatories, like the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

You were Yale’s first AfricanAmerican woman to earn a PhD in astrophysics. How did that experience shape you?

JI: I will say quite honestly that when I started my Ph.D., I didn’t start to be the first of anything. I started because I thought space was cool. I think black holes are among the coolest things in

the universe, so what I was doing was pursuing my dream and pursuing my interests as a scientist and researcher.

As I moved through the process, it became clear that the fact that I was Yale’s first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in astrophysics was also true, both in the way that my experience was lived out and in the way that history was lived out in the institution. I think, ultimately, there were things that I learned that were super helpful, and I achieved the dream of learning about particle jets, and here I am getting to share with a grand research group and another generation of folks.

Could you elaborate on how you connect to the idea of liminal space, which you spoke about in one of your TED talks?

JI: In a STEM context, we bring rich histories and knowledges and senses of understanding into our pursuit of science; it’s not just numbers and equations to plug in, but the kinds of questions we ask, the things that we find interesting, the methods we go about solving any given equation, are informed by the tools we have in our tool set, which are broadly defined. The goal is to make sure while we’re educating about the principles of science, we’re also creating pathways and access and opportunities to education so everyone who wants to can be a part of it, and not creating barriers that might stop folks’ interest. In that talk, I was specifically highlighting women of color in STEM as a group who sits at a number of different crossroads and how that might be of benefit to the community.

Why did you VanguardSTEM?

found

JI: I am a black woman in astrophysics, and I am honored to be in the category of women of color in STEM, and so I resonate with some of the shared experiences, the cultural touchpoints of the community. But also because there are things I wish I had and things that were being asked of me by students, even when I was a postdoc, that I wish existed. One example of that is mentoring and the sheer experience of being able to see the example or the representation of yourself in the work that you do. Ultimately, to be affirmed in that ... rather than being asked to be something else. I wanted to expand the definition of what it means to be a woman of color in STEM, specifically a black woman in astrophysics, and how to form community around this notion of both belonging and of agency and autonomy.

What is one thing people should know about space, but don’t?

JI: It’s kind of a thing that I like to point to, actually. Black holes are very much in the popular culture, people have some sense of what they are, but because they are part of pop culture there are some things that have trailed along that just aren’t true, and the one thing I just wish I could expunge from the record is that black holes are not vacuums in space. It’s the kind of thing that everyone assumes, but they are actually pretty picky eaters; you have to fall onto the accretion disc — or as I like to call it, the dinner plate — in precisely the right way in order to actually fall onto a black hole.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

AEI PRESIDENT DELIVERS THE BROOKS LECTURE

MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

Dr. Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, speaks on uniting America.

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DARTMOUTHEVENTS

THE DARTMOUTH EVENTS

HARVEST DINNER’S EVIL TWIN

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2019

LAUREL DERNBACH ’22

TODAY

8:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Art Exhibit: “Yellowstone,” by MALS student Nan Darham, sponsored by the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Russo Gallery, Haldeman Center

4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Poetry & Prose Reading: “Witches in America,” with filmmaker and essayist Alex Mar, sponsored by the English department, Sanborn Library

5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Panel: “Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Awards,” with 2019 honorees recognized for contributions to Upper Valley community, sponsored

by Institutional Diversity and Equity, Filene Auditorium, Moore Hall

TOMORROW 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Kick-off: “V-February: Pluralities of Sexualities Fair,” sponsored by the Office of Pluralism and Leadership, Collis Common Ground

7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Film: “The Favourite,” by Yorgos Lanthimos, sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Loew Auditorium, Black Family Visual Arts Center

7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Men’s Basketball: Big Green v. Brown Bears, Leede Arena

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH NEWS

Online training required for faculty FROM TITLE IX PAGE 1

roots of sexual violence and being trauma informed — and that sort of movement will help to change our culture,” she added.

The training program was announced on Jan. 3 as part of College President Phil Hanlon’s Campus Climate and Culture Initiative, an initiative that aims to “ensure that academic learning and research take place in an environment that is free from sexual harassment and the abuse of power.” The initiative was launched after the $70 million lawsuit filed against the College in which plaintiffs alleged the College had failed to protect them against sexual harassment at the hands of Dartmouth faculty.

The deadline for completing the training is March 13, and reminders are sent out to recipients every two weeks. So far, 34 percent of faculty have finished the module.

The online module, called “Bridges: Building a Supportive Community,” was selected through a company called Everfi, also referred to as Lawroom. Everfi provides educational training to colleges and universities, and has over 80 different modules on issues based around campus harassment, compliance and financial accounting. The College has been in partnership with the company since 2002, utilizing training programs and modules such as AlcoholEdu and Sexual Assault Prevention for Undergraduates for freshman students.

The Bridges module, which takes 45 minutes to an hour to complete, contains short

educational videos and interactive slides defining what falls under sexual misconduct. There are guidelines and information on how to correctly identity and report incidents to the administration.

The College began looking at the Bridges program two and a half years ago. However, at the time, few faculty supported the initiative.

With the assistance of senior leadership in the administration, the committee recently decided on Bridges and launched a successful pilot, before moving forward with the course this year.

For French and Italian professor Loic Lerme, while the content of the training was well-detailed and relevant, he worried about its length.

“I think they could get straight to the point sooner,” Lerme said.

“Sometimes I think that it could deter people [in that] they’d just want to click through and call it a day.”

In addition to the online modules, the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault is pushing the College to implement a mandatory, in-person faculty training to comprehensively address reporting responsibilities, the consequences of trauma, support tools and resources for survivors.

In a public memo sent out the senior leadership of SPCSA during winter break, information regarding sexual violence disclosures is “too nuanced to be conveyed online, just as a recorded lecture can’t reproduce the learning experience that comes from listening in person.”

SPCSA executive chair Paulina Calcaterra ’19 said she had heard from multiple people that they were concerned about the depiction of a perpetrator and their ethnicity in the module. She said that to some, the ethnicity of the perpetrator in the modules could reinforce harmful stereotypes.

“I want to validate anyone’s discomfort with those representations and agree that it’s important that the training is in every way inclusive and under standing of systematic oppression,” Calcaterra said. “ I hope the importance of dismantling some of those norms around who a perpetrator is can be addressed.”

An additional online training program for the graduate and professional students is also u n d e r w a y. B e c a u s e t h e Sexual Assault Prevention for Graduates course — parallel to the underg raduate SAPU course — doesn’t cover faculty responsibilities that many teaching graduate students take on, the Title IX office is in the process of assessing whether SAPG or Bridges will be a better fit to send out to graduate students. The decision will be made by next week, and the goal date to launch is around Feb. 1.

Clemens stressed that the modules serve as a part of a larger plan for change.

“We don’t want anyone to think that we’re saying this training is going to fix everything. This is one small star in the greater constellation of things we’re doing to make change,” Clemens said.

ON THE LOOKOUT FOR RECRUITS

MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF

The College is recruiting student volunteers who wish to help build the snow sculpture for this year’s Winter Carnival.

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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2019

GUEST COLUMNIST JOHN CARAMICHAEL ’20

CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST PETER LEUTZ ’22

Dartmouth Doesn’t Believe

Red, White and Offended

Dartmouth “applauds the courage of survivors” while denying them.

In Nov. 2018, seven women former and current students in Dartmouth’s psychological and brain sciences department filed a $70 million class action against the College. The lawsuit alleged under Title IX that Dartmouth failed to protect its students from sexual harassment and assault, detailing horrifying patterns of abuse by Dartmouth professors.

In January, the College filed its response.

As required by law, Dartmouth had to admit or deny every allegation made by the plaintiffs.

Predictably, the College stated that it “lacks knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief about the truth of ” many allegations, the legal equivalent of saying “we don’t know.”

This is actually understandable. Dartmouth doesn’t know everything about the lawsuit’s allegations. Some allegations have no witnesses, and others have little evidence.

But disturbingly, Dartmouth is going out of its way to deny or minimize some of the plaintiffs’ allegations of sexual assault and harassment. Instead of choosing to say “we don’t know” to some of the allegations, Dartmouth explicitly denies them, presumably because the school is exposed to liability.

Dartmouth denies that for “well over a decade, [the plaintiffs] have been treated as sex objects by [the former professors].” It denies receiving complaints about “pervasive sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination... since at least 2002.” It denies the professors demonstrated an “obvious bias” to hiring “young, attractive female students” for their labs. It denies the PBS department had a “party culture.” It denies female students who didn’t drink with professors were “neglected academically.” Dartmouth even denies that three past allegations of groping against one professor indicated that further sexual assaults might occur later.

These denials are both unsettling and ridiculous. Dartmouth denies the students being treated like “sex objects” or receiving sexual harassment complaints in 2002, despite admitting that faculty members were told that former professor Todd Heatherton had groped a female student’s breast. At one point, the school admits that two other students had alleged Heatherton groped their buttocks, but then states that it does not understand the acts

“to have been sexual in nature,” despite the incident allegedly being reported directly to the chair of the department.

There are so many problems with the College’s filing that it’s hard to know where to start. Dartmouth goes out of its way to repeatedly describe Heatherton’s 2002-03 alleged gropings as “few” and “isolated” as if they therefore matter less. While it’s true the statute of limitations in New Hampshire is one year for unwanted sexual contact, the trauma of survivors can last for decades, sometimes even for their entire lives. The filing also bizarrely asserts past assaults did not indicate Heatherton might commit future acts of sexual assault, which is patently absurd and beyond frustrating, edging into the territory of excusatory statements like “boys will be boys.”

By the end of the filing, the message is clear — Dartmouth believes survivors, unless they’re a threat. If an allegation could leave the College liable, the school outright denies it, often with no evidence and in defiance of basic logic. In two cases, the school acknowledges allegations of sexual assault, but in the next sentence says that “the College does not understand [these acts] to be sexual or to have been perceived by the male or female student as sexual.”

At the beginning of the court filing, the College went out of its way to “applaud” the courage of the seven women who came forward. But consider this: Why does it take courage to come forward? From the court filing, we’ve learned one reason — because coming forward means being crushed. And with regards to Dartmouth’s persistent “we didn’t know,” my response is this — it’s your job to know. If professors are groping their students, snorting “real cocaine” in the classroom, sending students pictures of their genitals, and taking them to conferences to deliberately get them drunk and assault them, it’s your job to know.

Caramichael is a member of the Class of 2020.

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What to make of Louis C.K.?

Earlier this month, Louis C.K. made his exist for established comedians. unintentional yet anticipated return to the Demanding that Louis C.K. ease off of the public eye through leaked audio recordings offensive jokes for the sake of school shooting of his newest standup material. The comedic survivors also underestimates the strength of genius, famous for a shocking style of humor these young adults. In this case, I definitely have saying what others won’t, did not shy away no problem standing in support of free speech from his well-established, when the victims of that controversial public persona. “Nothing says more speech have proved time Accompanied by the din and again that they can about modern of alarmingly extended stand up for themselves. laughter, C.K. stated, American culture than The greatest insult to “You’re not interesting outrage in response school shooting survivors because you went to a high has been Congress school where kids got shot. to a comedian’s doing nothing in the Why does that mean I have insensitive dialogue aftermath of a slaughter to listen to you? How does of their friends that could on gun violence, yet that make you interesting? have been preventable You didn’t get shot, you excusing that same with 21st century gun pushed some fat kid in the insensitivity when it laws: common sense way, and now I gotta listen lawmaking that our to you talking?” Louis C.K. is carried out on the government still can’t has made a career out basis of partisanship.” quite figure out. For of reminding Americans the sake of the school that, whether they like it shooting victims who or not, the First Amendment still exists: this C.K. made jokes about, direct your anger in performance was no different. The wider a more productive direction. Nothing says audience, however, is. more about modern American culture than For better or for worse, the American outrage in response to a comedian’s insensitive public, apparently with the exception of the dialogue on gun violence, yet excusing that hysterical fans heard in the background of the same insensitivity when it is carried out on the audio recording, can no longer stomach C.K.’s basis of partisanship. brand of humor. It seems the broader public has The Atlantic’s Megan Garber accused forgotten that comedians, by definition, are not Louis C.K. of masking comedy as tragedy. supposed to be taken seriously. The American Garber is simply accusing C.K. of doing his audience seems increasingly fragile and quickly job. For years, Louis C.K. has been stunning offended. Given this new culture, C.K. was audiences into laughter with jokes that listeners unsurprisingly eaten alive across social media know they probably shouldn’t be laughing at. platforms. Yet I find it embarrassing that, as the If Louis C.K. was an actor, singer or any other one-year anniversary of the Parkland shooting type of public figure that is not a comedian, approaches, Louis C.K. I would support people’s is the person with whom outrage. However, he “The most appalling people are upset. is a comedian, and the L o u i s C . K . i s a reality of his most longevity of his career has comedian, one whom proven that there is even many already knew is recent set is that mass a market for this, a most far from a role model. shootings have now menacing form of humor.

Last year C.K. confessed I don’t support jokes about become a part of that to sexual misconduct mass shootings, but I hope allegations made by five everyday. Listeners America’s fragile culture separate women, and must remember doesn’t choke out comedy people are somehow that can often make us surprised by his lack of that this most laugh about issues that taste in recent comments? uncomfortable reality would otherwise make us But C.K.’s comments cry. Comedians seek to find is not Louis C.K.’s didn’t cross the line, humor in the everyday. because for comedians, fault.”

The most appalling reality especially comedians of his most recent set is that of C.K.’s particularly mass shootings have now raunchy style, no such line exists. Regardless become a part of that everyday. Listeners must of how offensive they may be, C.K is protected remember that this most uncomfortable reality by the first amendment. Furthermore, as a is not Louis C.K.’s fault. comedian, C.K.’s speech should be especially C.K.’s comments should be of little concern, protected and contextualized for what is at least so long as he stays on the mic. If his comedy is an attempt at comedy. As long as the audience truly too offensive, his audience will fade. Such keeps laughing, whether or not it eventually dialogue becomes truly problematic when it is consists of only NRA card holders, C.K. will shared with a sincerity that simply cannot and continue to make such jokes. As a die-hard fan should not be expected to be attained behind of comedy, I acknowledge that, while C.K. closed doors at a late-night comedy club during may have missed the mark this time around, open mic as a part of a stand-up routine or act. his best work is often found furthest over the Asking Louis C.K. to be less offensive is like “line” that again really doesn’t, nor shouldn’t, asking Pablo Picasso to use less blue.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2019

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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION

STAFF COLUMNIST BENJAMIN SZUHAJ ’19

STAFF COLUMNIST CLARA CHIN ’19

The Busyness Effect

Thinking In The Nude

Ever increasing demands on our attention profoundly reshape society.

Recently I spoke with a friend about the best way to address something that was bothering her. We’d discussed the subject before — it was clearly on her mind often — and over the course of our conversation, we homed in on one topic: attention. In her case, attention served a paradoxical function. She wanted to focus on the thing that was bothering her — in doing so, she believed, she could control it — but if she focused too intently on the thing, she would wind up fixating on it, and said thing she was trying to control wound up controlling her. Attention, in this case, was a tricky process. The right amount of attention helps solve the problem, gives her back control, whereas the wrong amount — too much attention — is tantamount to relinquishing control.

Since that conversation, I’ve thought a lot about attention, which, apart from being a strange and self-referential exercise, caused me to wonder if society undervalues attention. On a micro level, it’s easy to examine the ways attention is discussed.

People “pay attention.” People have “attention spans.” Intuitively, language describes attention as a limited resource. But do we collectively understand its value?

While difficult to quantify economically, the market value of our attention has been better calculated in recent years. The airtime for a 30 second Super Bowl ad sold for on average roughly $5.24 million in 2018, while an estimated 103.4 million people tuned in to watch the Philadelphia Eagles’ dramatic win over the New England Patriots. A quick calculation shows that advertisers paid roughly 5 cents per person per 30 second ad. Put another way, to advertisers, a viewer’s attention was worth roughly $6.08 per hour. It’s worth noting as well that Super Bowl LII in 2018 had the highest pay-per-ad rate of any Super Bowl, while simultaneously being the least-watched Super Bowl in the past decade.

Evidently, attention is getting more and more valuable, at least in the eyes of America’s biggest corporations. It’s basic economics: As demand for our attention grows, so does the price paid for it.

Conversely, as consumers have less attention left to “spend” on various sources, so too does the price paid for it rises. Why is attention in ever-increasing demand and shorter and shorter supply? That’s a complicated question. Though various disciplines answer this with different perspectives, I believe that the reasons may be broadly grouped in three categories: economic, technological and cultural.

To reiterate: Companies, which must display sustained growth to appease shareholders, will spend ever more money on the same television time, or sink resources into other avenues of advertising. They must do this to best competitors and maintain growth: they must capture consumers’ attention. This phenomenon is aided by innovations in both software and hardware.

With hardware, there always seems to be another way to put a smart screen on a body or device.

There are also auditory innovations like wireless headphones that make it easier (and fashionable) to stay plugged into “your world” and tuned out from the wider one. With software, search engine giants like Yahoo and Google, as well as social media behemoths like Instagram and Facebook, profit from retaining attention for as long as possible. Those same companies then sell

data to advertisers, who target their ads to users, which, while it may not sound like the worst thing in the world, means that the e-advertising cycle is a vicious one — with companies incentivized to suck up as much of people’s attention as they can.

All this said, I use social media like the other 88 percent of my generation. I recognize that technological innovation and business savvy yield great benefits for society at large. I simply wonder if that binge-worthy Netflix series you, dear reader, watched on your iPhone is worth the associated costs: the well-documented dwindling of the American attention span, society’s increased time spent on laptops and phones, and, perhaps the most surreptitious of all the deleterious effects, the ever-increasing expectation to be, or at least appear, busy.

The American work ethic is an ethos with a long and complicated history, yet Americans don’t work a great deal harder than workers from other developed nations. According to an study commissioned by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 11.7 percent of American workers reported working more than 50 hours per week, slightly less than the 13 percent average of the other 37 countries surveyed. What does seem apparent, however, is that Americans like to seem as if they are working a lot. And while there may be some complicated vestiges of the Protestant work ethic and selfmade-man mentality still at play in this country, this collective performance seems largely the result of a culture shift. At some point, it seems to have become more acceptable to silently scroll through Twitter during a meal than to sit across from someone in silence. In the workplace, it looks better to browse the web rather than appear totally idol. To get into college, students across the country are becoming involved in more and more activities. To pay for college, students are taking on more and more debt to pay for more and more amenities to utilize with less and less time.

Underlying these phenomena are complicated social and economic drivers — some of which I’ve discussed, others which seem unavoidable — that collectively might be termed “the busyness effect.”

It’s worth noting that “busyness,” as in the state of being engaged in a task, and “business” as in the practice of engaging in commerce, were once one and the same word, etymologically tied as if to suggest it is unprofessional to be idle.

The busyness effect has a powerful psychological consequence: According to a recent Cigna survey, 46 percent of Americans “sometimes or always feel alone,” and two in five “sometimes or always feel that their relationships are not meaningful,” while just over half report having meaningful in-person interactions daily.

All of this is to say that our attention is a limited resource, and that this brings with it a host of associated consequences. And there’s still the question of where people choose to focus — because in a world defined increasingly by white noise, what, and who, people choose to focus on matters a great deal. If any conclusions can be draw, then it’s one, as it often is, about balance.

Learn to hone focus; learn when and how to disengage; learn to temper work with life, learn to be comfortable in silence.

The unpolished side of social media makes the highbrow accessible.

If Mapplethorpe had Instagram, would his account get banned? In museums, nudity and emotional expression are well-accepted.

But the account @artwerk6666, which often features twerking and seemingly baroque iPhone photos of the nude body, recently got deleted at 69 thousand followers for about the 17th time.

Featured on Vice, Dazed 100 and a couple of smaller culture websites, Alexandra Marzella, the owner of @artwerk6666, is an artist, selfie taker and feminist performance artist — so what’s the issue? Nudity. Nudity is crass and unsophisticated, or so digital admins would have you believe. Her account, however, is one of many that intentionally misuses social media to display an affect of rawness that destabilizes the idea of a polished public face. An Instagram feed with different variations of golden-hour selfies would be a boring place to be. Social media spaces should take the recent Tumblr regulation initiatives as a sign to take a step back, since feminist performance artists rely on social media to destabilize the image of the perfect woman for consumption.

With images of beautiful, smiling women surrounded by friends, social media has been called out for encouraging unrealistic beauty and lifestyle standards. To challenge this, feminist content creators give stripped-down, intimate versions of their art. Filmmakers dance around in their underwear, artists paint on their live streams, and models rant about life on their stories. Mia Kerin (@miakerin) was featured on the Dazed 100, a yearly list charting the “rise of those who’ve dared to give pop culture a shot in the arm,” for her unedited selfies and satirical makeup videos on Instagram. The seemingly flawless model Ceilidh Garten (@lilmixedhunny) posts photos of herself lying in bed voicing streamof-consciousness, self-deprecating thoughts like, “I gave up because that’s what I’m really good at doing.” Meme artists like @memesturbationation post vaguely psychoanalytic captions over films, like “Me after idealizing someone in my head and then actually engaging in conversation,” with a username and tone alluding to private thoughts made public. And of course, there is Marzella, whose nude photography often features a caption about mental health and feeling. This kind of work is akin to the confessional poetry of Sylvia Plath or Diane Wakoski, sensual and emotional, almost like a diary. It often receives criticism for being unprofessional, simplistic or downright explicit.

But this kind of conceptual art is both complex and important because it critiques the notion that we must keep our bodily and emotional flaws to ourselves; aesthetically pleasing yet thoughtprovoking content deconstructs the aesthetically boring goal of perfection that social media too often propagates. While seemingly low-effort, these works bring the high-brow down low.

A concept that threatens the freedom of these kinds of stripped down social media pages is digital citizenship. The Digital Citizenship Website (a consortium of educators dedicated to research on the term) defines it as “the norms of appropriate, responsible technology use,” adding that “too often we are seeing students as well as adults misusing and abusing technology but not sure what to do.” Common Sense Education, a nonprofit organization with information about

technology culture for families, has developed a curriculum meant to help students use social media “responsibly” and curate a public image that will not get them in trouble. While educating young people on cyberbullying, hate speech, and privacy issues is important, the focus on citizenship conceives of social media as a regulated political space instead of a liberating space for art-making. These organizations seek to normalize risk-free internet behavior to keep the internet a safe space, but as a result discourage forms of expression that aim to unsettle. Nudity may be used to express ideas about intimacy and de-sexualizing the female body, and open discussions about depression and mental health can encourage being in touch with one’s emotions; since both forms of vulnerability are considered unprofessional and digital citizenship maintains the idea of social media as a professional space, regulations inspired by the idea of digital citizenship prevent these modes of artistic expression. The move toward digital citizenship helps to explain the rationale behind Tumblr’s recent ban on adult content. While Tumblr’s ban still makes exceptions for nudity found in art, the algorithm has identified non-explicit material as explicit, and is inadequate to handle art that toes the line between erotic avant-garde and straight pornography. The notion of social media as a public space discourages people from expressing their raw emotions and from taking risks in using the body as form.

Artistic and ideological freedom on social media is especially important to me in light of my senior fellowship. My monograph is about destigmatizing desire by applying the psychoanalytic framework of hysteria to contemporary cinema. That sounds fancy, but it is essentially about sex and emotion (with some slightly bigger, slightly more literary words). I strongly believe in the analytical long-form writing I do for academic research, but this kind of work has little meaning if it dies in an ivory tower. It is easy to value intellectual thought if it lives in a college library, a museum, or a theater — even if, like mine, it addresses sexuality or mental health. But sometimes this work needs to be taken apart so that it reaches circles of people who do not have the same technical background as a professional artist or writer. My meme page might seem emotionally risqué or simply trashy, but it is essentially the same content as my essays, with a different vocabulary. Without social media, the institutionally-supported work I do has no impact on the wider community for whom I write.

It is the vulnerability and nakedness (whether literally or figuratively) that destabilizes the space of the internet. “Edgy” content allows conceptual art to reach people all over the world, even if they have never seen a Marina Abramovic exhibit in a museum or gone to a film festival. While the issue of cyber safety is important and certainly warrants some protections, over-regulating the internet and conceiving it as a space of policies and citizens prevents it from being a revolutionary space of creation. If Gaspar Noé’s pornographic shots in Love and Climax is accepted as art because they have graced the screens of film festivals, emotionally honest and physically vulnerable content by independent women creators should be celebrated similarly.

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2019

THE DARTMOUTH ARTS

Review: ‘Polar’ is a disappointing yet entertaining mess of a movie B y James cronin The Dartmouth

It’s an understatement to say that Netflix has a bad history with its original movies. Sure, they might make one decent movie every now and then, but for every “Roma,” there are at least three films like “The Cloverfield Paradox.” “Polar,” regrettably, won’t be joining “Roma,” “Mudbound” or “Beasts of No Nation” in the lofty pantheon of decent Netflix movies because, depending on your definition of what makes a movie good, it’s either some of the worst trash to ever grace the “trending now” section of Netflix, or a glorious hot mess that’s incredibly entertaining by virtue of how bad it is.

Mads Mikkelsen stars as retired, legendary assassin Duncan Vizla — known better by his nickname “the Black Kaiser.” Upon turning 50, Vizla is forced to retire from the life of an assassin, as per the rules of the crime syndicate he works for, and is entitled to a retirement package of $9 million.

Obviously, the crime syndicate — known as Damocles — doesn’t want to pay this retirement package, so they

come up with the genius idea to try and kill the legendary Black Kaiser. It does not go as planned.

Personally, I don’t think every movie needs to be the next “The Shawshank Redemption.” I think that simple, hyperviolent action movies with little to no plot that do nothing but glorify violence have a place in cinema because of their entertaining nature. I love action movies that don’t try to be pretentious, and “Polar” is this type of movie at moments.

However, for most of it, it crosses into borderline parody territory. If a bunch of emotionally stunted high-schoolers got together, were given a few million dollars to land Mikkelsen and attempted to make the next “John Wick,” this would be the result.

I genuinely enjoyed a few parts of this movie. Mikkelsen is the best part of the film by a large margin. He brings his A-game to the screen and manages to slightly mitigate some of the damage of an otherwise complete dumpster fire. If he wanted to become the next Liam Neeson in the line of old man action heroes, he could do it effortlessly.

Halfway through, I actually had to look up how much money he was paid for

this role because I thought he was far above this type of flick. I sincerely hope that, at the least, he was able to buy a new summer home for the damage inflicted on his reputation. The action, while so violent that it would make even Quentin Tarantino blush, was actually pretty decent in most parts. It’s a far cry from the cinematography and choreography of “John Wick,” but it does a solid job of grabbing the viewer’s attention nonetheless. Stylistically, I enjoyed the hyper saturated colors, the quirky “ransom note” graphics, and how most characters were funky and quite varied except for the villain, who was absolutely horrendous as a result of both Matt Lucas’ performance and of how he was written in the screenplay.

This movie fails in a few places.

For one, there is far too much insanely gratuitous violence that literally does nothing but unnecessarily pad a runtime that’s already fairly long at one hour and 58 minutes. I usually love movie violence, but there’s a limit. Overly graphic violence and torture that does nothing to further the plot is something that even I can’t stomach, and that’s saying a lot if you knew what a few

of my favorite movies are. Also, the unnecessary amount of female nudity was gratuitous and pandering, and I sincerely hope that director Jonas Åkerlund included it in an attempt to satirize the misogynistic nature of old Hollywood films, and not because it’s a reflection of his own opinions on women — but that might be a stretch. I will say that there are at least some “strong” female characters who play bad guys, so at least not all of the women in this movie are treated as objects.

Evidence for the theory that Åkerlund actually intended to make this movie a parody of “grindhouse” exploitation films is the sheer number of clichés. Here are a few of the ones I managed to spot: henchmen have stormtrooper aim and cannot hit the protagonist from almost point blank range; the antagonists have multiple opportunities to easily kill the protagonist but do not for some convoluted reason; bad guys travel in a motorcade of black SUVs; the main protagonist gets grievously wounded multiple times throughout the movie and doesn’t die even though he doesn’t seek immediate medical attention; guns

never need reloading; there’s a damsel in distress that the protagonist must save; the most clichéd 90s-esque computer software I’ve ever seen; a villain with absolutely no depth; a betrayal by someone the protagonist thought was his friend; a protagonist who speaks almost solely in one-liners. Admittedly, I really enjoyed the last cliché because Mikkelsen can make any line sound really cool.

This movie is a different kind of terrible, and that’s probably its most entertaining aspect. Eighty percent of what’s in the movie is bad but in ways you haven’t seen before, so it’s unintentionally really amusing. I watched it with a buddy of mine who was visiting for the weekend and we had a decent time. So, if you’re like us, you will find some value in this train wreck, but I wouldn’t count on it. I’m extremely glad I didn’t have to pay money to see this. That it only cost me two hours of my Saturday I could otherwise have spent napping and the fact that it was moderately entertaining redeemed it to the point where I can actually recommend it to anyone who enjoys a “bad” movie every now and then.

Review: ‘The Undressing’ is a powerful reflection on time and love B y Mia nelson The Dartmouth

The first poem I remember loving was “From Blossoms” by Li-Young Lee. I memorized its soaring verses, each one a dedication to peaches, and would recite it at nearly every lunch period to the chagrin of my classmates. I was a girl obsessed.

That was the first time I had seen a poem that was unapologetically jubilant; Lee eschewed everything I thought I knew about poetry in “From Blossoms.” There was nothing depressing, pejorative or traumatic.

It was simply an exalting review of some really good fruit and a really good summer’s day — and it was in that simplicity that Lee found the nuance and depth that marks interesting poetry.

“From Blossoms” grew in its sophistication as I grew old enough to look for it: “There are days we live/as if death were nowhere/in the background” became more than a description of today being a happy day, to the insinuation that there are days where death does exist in the background. When Lee writes

“to carry within us an orchard,” the reader can think of transferring the literal fruits of an orchard to one’s stomach, or the reader can imagine that contained within the consumption of peaches is the consumption of the shade, shadow and dirt. This line, while so simple, reveals a manifold of information to contemplate. His deft writing is what has amassed Lee recognition as one of the most important poets writing today. Among the landscape of his awards is the William Carlos Williams award for his third collection of poems, “Book of My Nights.” Lee is the first poet I can say I was truly moved by, so when his collection “The Undressing” came out in late 2018, I expected reading his work to feel like coming home to the first traces of my love for poetry.

And feel like coming home it did.

Titles such as “At the Year’s Revolving Door” and “Eavesdropping at Morning’s Sill” go with the fact that most of Lee’s poems have a sense of domesticity, as if readers are overhearing conversations going on in the narrator’s home. The first, eponymous poem of the collection

is a conversation between romantic partners, one reminding the other “the things you need reminded of.”

The partners describe the “World as a story/ that keeps beginning.” This bare bone observation is startling in its beauty: the assertion that for time immemorial, we will be, as the two narrators of the poem are, lying in bed telling each other stories. This is a gentle reminder of our simultaneous cosmic smallness and our endlessness to those we love.

Observations of love abound in the collection, with lines such as: “the voices of lovers/are creation’s most recent flowers;” “your loving look finds each of these things/loveable, I can see. Things/by other means poor;” and most resonant to me, “… longing entered time as this body.”

The personification of grief as the human body extends the conversation beyond love to the sadness of being.

Grief is our body, because it is within our body that our ultimate loneliness is enshrined through our separate containment to individual flesh.

Lee also makes powerful comments on the nature of time in “The Undressing.” He writes, “And

time is a black butterfly, pinned/while someone searches for its name in a book.” The delicate assertion that time simultaneously possesses wings and the ability to be held, forces the reader to decide whether or not they believe that they may reach out and pin the past or whether they think the nature of time is as archaic as being in a book or if it lives as in a butterfly.

Another potent description of time comes in “At the Year’s Revolving Door,” where he writes that time is “music/the living, the dead, and the unborn/step in and out of, shadowing each other.” Lee gives a beautiful description of the malleable nature of time, which for me conjured thoughts of religion and spirituality. There are indeed times I feel the ghosts of my passed loved ones and the ghosts of all the strangers I haven’t yet met, but will soon love, dancing with me on my walk to class. Conjuring up the idea of being influenced even by the spirits we cannot name, Lee’s writing always makes me feel less lonely. His poetry is a bridge between the living realm and the other realms of the universe, tying us all together with assertions as such: “To say no to death/ is to

say no to living.”

Many feel as if poetry is too opaque for them, something meaningless and dark, with no relevance to our lives and none of the fun of novels. But poetry is how we name ourselves; it is the explanation of human phenomena of grief, love and longing. Poetry is the assertion that I am alive and important, and so are you, simply by looking around and noticing. Lee’s collection “The Undressing” is a beautiful foray into poetry for those looking to engage with the genre’s deep capacity for self-affirmation, and for those who already recognize that a poem can indeed change your whole life. While no poem will ever mean as much to me as “From Blossoms,” the poem “I Loved You Before I Was Born” from this collection has earned an immoveable place in my chest.

Listen: “I give you my blank heart/ Please write on it/what you wish.”

In reading his collection, I gave Lee my blank heart, and he wrote on it truly incomparable descriptions of the love, loss and joy that make life worth living, and poetry worth reading.