Blonde

Freshly baked bagels and 12 varieties of cream cheese are available just down the street at Bagel Café 21, with an excellent drink selection to complement a toasted breakfast meal. Bagel Café 21 is located on Campbell and Coit, just about a 15-minute walk from campus proper and less than a five minute drive. It’s located in the same strip mall as Jersey Mike’s, and in the same parking lot as Whataburger and Richardson Bike Mart. The indoor seating area is small, but as the second summer ends and winter approaches, the outdoor seating area will start to feel nice as well. It’s generally open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and provides a nice closeto-campus early morning option with its fast service.

The cafe’s namesake offering comes in multiple varieties, ranging from the classic everything bagel to sweeter options like the cinnamon sugar bagel and savory ones such as bacon cheddar. Even their plain bagels come with a twist on the weekends: they’ve got rainbow colored bagels on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a pop of color to go with the customer’s favored cream cheese spread. This too comes with multiple good options, with the garlic and herb spread and the lox spread being standout cream cheeses. The lox spread comes pretty close to replicating a regular lox bagel with salmon, and the garlic and herb spread just seems like an enhanced standard cream cheese. Moreover, they also offer multiple bagel sandwiches both breakfast and lunch themed.

For coffee, it’s both good and cost- efficient. You won’t pay any more than 2 to 4 dollars for any normal coffee, and the specialty horchata, matcha, and chai drinks cap out around $7 bucks. In essence, unless you want a milkshake, the drink prices are comparable to Starbucks while being

'Not Okay' is not okay to watch

Quinn Shepard offensive satire targets society's social media obsession

“Not Okay” attempts to explore just how far the internet-obsessed will go to achieve fame, but misses its mark and comes across as flippant and insensitive.

A social media focused film like “Not Okay” comes at the perfect time. Phones are no longer just used for twenty-centa-minute calls—nowadays, through the internet, we have access at all hours of the day to near-limitless amounts of information. “Not Okay” calls into question the commodification of self, something that it argues is a result of the new phenomenon of chronic internet use. Those who are ‘media obsessed’ in the film cleverly exploit cursory trends that go out of style as quickly as they are in. “Not Okay” shows us how commodification in the name of fame is short-lived and unsatisfying.

The film’s “not-so-pro” protagonist Danni Sanders finds herself thrust onto a global stage after she lies about being a survivor of a terrorist bombing. This premise is where the film begins to fall apart. The odds in which she situates herself toe the line between outright offensive and totally unbelievable. Further, Danni’s interaction with people who truly experienced traumatic terrorist events in the film fails to be comedic and comes across as making fun of survivors. The film goes so far as to reduce therapy for trauma to a playground for Danni where she can take advantage of a community of people who, unaware of her lie, are nothing but kind to her. In the film, Danni befriends Rowan, a younger woman whose older sister died in a school shooting. Rowan is the film’s only redeemable character, who Danni copies to better fit the role of “survivor.”

The concept of appropriation is stressed in the film with Danni’s total willingness to step into spaces she has little knowl- a statement about the relentless exploitation and objectification that Marilyn Monroe endured at the hands of Hollywood. But how is that message meaningful when it is done by exploiting the legacy of a mentally ill woman’s chaotic life and tragic death? Critics have called this film self-indulgent for good reason—it is unbearably hypocritical. from relationship to relationship, Monroe comes across as having little depth of her own. Some might argue this is a symptom of her illness. But I say it is lazy writing. attempts to communicate this point but only misrepresents her life and exploits her death yet again.

The entire plot of “Blonde” is entangled with bizarre reimaginings of Marilyn Monroe’s life; I won’t spoil them here, but it is clear they are done for shock value. The true details of Monroe’s life are obscured by unnecessary lies invented by a writer bent on subjecting this woman to a marathon of suffering. The movie’s motive for doing this is clear: to make

“Blonde” could be described best in two words: “male gaze.” It criticizes voyeurism in media by creating a feature-film length chronicle of voyeuristic torture porn. It criticizes hypersexualization by telling a tale of graphic trysts that once again force Norma Jeane into the sex roles she felt so stifled by. In life, she was a complicated but highly intelligent woman with a talent for writing and a love of literature. This film prefers to portray her as a milquetoast man-pleaser—completely ignoring her independent spirit. Flitting

Many modern psychiatrists believe that Marilyn Monroe suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), a serious mental illness that affects a person’s ability to control their emotions, thoughts and impulses. For a woman whose life was crippled by the disease, this movie does a good job of playing up the symptoms it deems romantic and excluding the ones it finds disagreeable.

While its depiction of Monroe is misleading, the film communicates BPD’s more confusing symptoms in a way never done before. Monroe’s inner world is a pinwheel of moods where reality and delusion all blend together; this stream of consciousness is perfectly por-

“Yeah, I actually do. Devin Booker. He’s my famous basketball player. He supports like late Kobe Bryant, so as a support I look up to him. He’s one of the few Hispanic players in the NBA. There’s a select few stands(?), another guy named Jordan Poole, so that’s why it was special.”

Comet Comments

Who's a Hispanic figure you look up to?

“I would say I look up to Dolores Huerta. She is an immigrant rights activist so she also was like an activist that worked with the field workers during the ‘60s and ‘70s and she was the only woman doing it at that time and she’s a Hispanic one and that’s unheard of you know, so I really look up to her for all the work she’s done, female empowerment as well, and Latino heritage and stuff like that.”

“He’s a fashion designer, his name is (Blazey?) and he makes graphics for shirts and other companies and stuff like that. I think I look up to his work ethic.”

“I actually do, she’s like one of my best friends, and she actually goes to MIT. She’s super smart and a really supportive best friend and I think she’s just always there for me. She’s super hard working, she’s caring, so my friend is like the person I look up to the most.”

“That’s funny, I’m Hispanic. It is a writer, Her name is Laura Chimaras. She is a motivational speaker, writer, and her story is based off of her dad. He was a famous TV star back in my home country Venezuela and he got murdered. She was reading a couple books and stuff… it definitely helps sometimes and her points of view, like searching topics.”

"Cesar Chavez, I suppose. Impact with wheat… is that what it was? Trying to remember if it’s fire or what. I honestly couldn’t give you a good explanation why. Not the right person to ask, I assume.”

[Pointing to a flag] This is the emblem of the monarchy of Iran. A lot of people here do not believe in that. A lot of people believe we have to have a republic afterwards. But we are all united in the fact that this regime must go and we have to have freedom of speech.”

The protest featured a speech by Mitra Razavi, who grew up in Iran during the 1979 revolution. She was a college student when she was imprisoned in 1982 and was continuously beaten by interrogators until her release in 1991. Immigrat - ing to America deepened her understanding of women's rights and helped her continue her fight for women in Iran.

Razavi believes that the movement has unlocked many years of concentrated anger and frustration.

“Today marks the 10th day of this movement, which started with mass death.” Razavi said.

“I thought it would be crushed like the previous ones, but in spite of regime brutality, the movement for freedom and equality continues.”

Literature graduate student Bahareh Momeniabdolabadi, one of the organizers of the event, said that The Handmaid’s Tale, the novel written by Margaret Atwood, accurately describes the control that the Islamic Republic has over Iran.

“It seems this generation that is making that change in Iran was born in a different Iran, which is like Gilead,” Momeniabdolabadi said. “I was born after the Islamic Revolution, so I didn’t have any frame of reference … even suppression seems to be normalized to you after a while.”

Demonstrators cheered as several women cut their hair to show their solidarity with protesters and rebel against Iran’s enforcement of Islamic law.

“A lot of the protesters believe in hijab. But they do not believe in enforcing it because they see this as a threat to Islam,” Alirezah Hamzeh said. “Because they say if Islam is the religion of peace, it shouldn’t be enforced like this.”

While hijab laws are foreign to people in the U.S., their enforcement in Iran remains a constant form of oppression for many women. Shahrzad Hamzeh specifies that the act of wearing hijab is not itself the issue.

“We are chanting for the right to choose to wear hijab or not,” Shahrzad said. “We don’t have student council." that anymore. It does not matter if you’re a Muslim, if you’re a Christian, if you’re Jewish, any religion you have, you are forced to wear hijab and that’s not right.”

Flyers at the demonstration advertised the Snowflake web extension, which helps Iranians circumvent the internet shutdown. Snowflake works by using the user’s Chrome or Firefox browser as a proxy for others to disguise their internet traffic. However, with the ongoing internet shutdown, VPNs and proxies can only do so much. Ultimately, people can’t use workarounds if there is no effec - tive internet access at all. Shahrzad Hamzeh said this lack of communication access has left students worried about relatives back in Iran.

“Everybody here, we haven’t talked to our families in days because there’s no internet,” Shahrzad Hamzeh said. “Why should it be like that? Why shouldn’t they have a voice? Why shouldn’t people talk about what is happening inside of Iran? … So we’re giving hope to the people inside of Iran that we are here for you. Even though you don’t have internet, we will be your voice from outside of Iran.” for super long at UTD, but that's that passion that comes in that."

This year, SG is moving toward being more visible on campus. To this end, they have been collabo-

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SG CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 with our transition has been that we’re a little short staffed,” Hinojosa said. “We’ve had people leave, and we have new positions that need to be filled as we expand.” rating directly with organizations on campus, posting weekly meetings on the Comet Calendar and flyers to advertise essential discussions. "This is not student council,” Moore said, “and anyone com-

Offices are undergoing transitions that initially interrupted department function in the 2022 summer semester, which had some students worried that the consequences would ripple into the fall semester. However, oDEI is looking for infrastructure solutions to ing in expecting that…will not last. They will not last in student government because we actually implement projects and advocate for administration. Student governments are more like a local government than your high school make amends before the spring and make up for lost time.

“We’ve had multiple people from the Multicultural Center come and talk to us about collaboration ... ” said Crystal Garcia, President of the Association of Latin American Students. “They’ll

Students can find the SG offices on the second floor of the SU across from the Galaxy rooms. The next general body meeting will be held on Oct. 4 at 5:30 p.m.in the Galaxy rooms; meets are held ev- just talk about how we can tell people what resources are available for them, and that if they need help, they can go to them for information. They’re trying to be there for us this semester."

Hinojosa said oDEI will take a community approach to main- ery other Tuesday. Both general body and committee meetings— held at the same time and place in the Tuesdays in between—are open for the public to attend.

"If you want anything done in student government, if you have taining representation while investigating any internal issues caused by the transition.

“We are open,” Hinojosa said.

“We’re not sure what students were asking, or what they found out from us, but I think it’s important to know that we’re here to an issue you're passionate about, come to meetings, email us, just send me a Teams message… We are accessible. We are a resource to students for a reason,” Moore said. “Don't just complain. Complain to us." serve students, faculty, and staff as we look into this. We’re open to ideas and suggestions, and as the dust is settling a little bit from our changes and moves and our reorganizations, we’re very open to our campus collaborators and departments.” to an hour for families.

The office will primarily help “first-time applicants and renewals if they are eligible to renew by mail,” Miranda said. Most

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-rum to receive feedback on how connected local walking and biking trails are and how well they students fit under this category if they were issued before the age of 16. We saw an opportunity that we can basically get involved in this market and bring more revenue to our department,” Miranda said, trash and debris that previously covered the tiled floors. Housing Operations’ preliminary service important community destinations.

Mathematics senior and club secretary Devan Bailey commented on the cost of the Richardson area’s

“so we can use those funds for all of our student programs,”

The facility also provides digital photos for international students when they apply for work visas to remain in the United States.

Once F-1 international stu- work brings hope that residents will finally see an amenity that once played a key role in stu - deficit in transit. Bailey said that most students don’t go outside off campus beyond visits to Northside, and that the city of Richardson is losing a large opportunity by sepa- dents are near finishing their studies, they can apply for temporary employment through an Optional Practical Training (OPT). After international students have attained a degree, they can then apply for an Employment Autho- dent life. In what has been nearly a month of silence since the start of the project, Operations rating campus from surrounding neighborhoods.

“That’s something a lot of students have complained about-that there’s no campus life,” Bailey rization Document through U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services.

“Because we have international students that require photos for their OPT vocations, we can take [their] digital photos,” Miranda said. “We looked at the specific provided one last comment on its status. “We will provide updates on said. “And part of that reason is that there’s nowhere to go other than campus. And there’s no places to meet people. Everyone’s spread out—people commute, but then requirements that they were asked to submit and noticed it’s exactly the same passport requirements." For both passport and visas, students can have their pictures taken by walk-in appointments in 15 minute sessions. the work’s progress as they become available,” Housing Operations said. they don’t stay, because there’s no reason to stay. And I think it’s really important to give reasons for people to stay around campus… and connect with the community.”