The Strand | Volume 59, Issue 2

What's brewing at Caffiends?

INSIDE VICTORIA COLLEGE’S FAIR TRADE COFFEE SHOP

PAGE 3 VICTORIA UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER VO L 5 9 I S S U E 2 - S E P T E M B E R 1 9 , 2 0 1 6

Just Google It!

September Soup and Salad

Not Infinite Jest

The Internet as the preeminent source for advice in the modern age

Quick and delicious Fall recipes for the budget-concious student

A Stranded review of Lucy Montgomery’s classic novel Anne of Green Gables

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News • The Strand

Sexual violence policy redrafted Dina Ginzburg | Contributor

New university policy draft spells stronger support for victims of sexual violence

Photo | Rhea Bhatia

Content warning: Articles discusses information pertaining to cases of sexual violence.

In the face of the recently instated Sexual Violence Policy Act, the University of Toronto has released its new Sexual Violence Policy draft. Key changes to the way assault and harassment have been handled in the past include the introduction of the Sexual Violence and Prevention Centre, which will serve as a centralized and standardized system for reporting, triage, and support.

It appears the University has made an effort to be transparent about its new policies. The draft is easy to follow with minimal legal jargon to wade through. The full document can be found through the Provost’s website.

Rules regarding whose jurisdiction off-campus assaults fall under have historically been debated, often leaving them unreported and unresolved.

Now, if a member of the University of Toronto community (that is to say student, staff, or employee) has been the victim of lewd messages or a blitz of harassing comments by another member of the community, the incident will fall under the sexual violence policy, with corresponding support and retributions.

Furthermore, there will be no toler-

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ance for any form of social media attack or criticism against someone who has launched a report, with sanctioning being among the consequences.

The policy makes clear distinction that Disclosure and Reporting are entirely different, and do not necessarily coincide with each other. While they are both facilitated by the Centre, “Disclosure is the sharing of information by an individual with a Member of the University Community regarding an Incident of Sexual Violence experienced by that individual”. There is to be no pressure to file a report against an assailant. As the report outlines, the priority is support, counselling and accommodation for the victim.

On the other hand, the draft defines Reporting as “the sharing of information by an individual with a designated Member of the University Community regarding an Incident of Sexual Violence experienced by that individual, with the intention of initiating one of the processes set out in this Policy, which could result in a disciplinary action being taken against the Member of the University Community alleged to have committed Sexual Violence”. If a Report is filed, the Centre will take

every measure to ensure minimal requirement for verbal repetition of the incident, minimizing the rehashing of trauma, which can be very taxing for those who have been assaulted.

A heavy emphasis has been put on confidentially. As reflected in the draft’s repeated mentions of a “reminder as to the ‘Confidentiality and Privacy’ provisions of the Policy”, risk of information reaching those who are not concerned in the situation significantly minimized. As the draft states: “The University will treat Disclosure and Reporting of an Incident of Sexual Violence in a confidential manner and in accordance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act”.

Essentially, this means, provided that withholding information does not pose conceivable danger, whoever has been confided in is not permitted to share the details of what they have been told.

The policy states that though a member of the University community may consult with the Centre regarding a situation that has been disclosed to them, they are forbidden from revealing any personal details unless authorised by the person who has confided in them.

Similarly, counsellors at the Centre are

to keep all information private.

In her article for Time entitled “Why Victims of Rape in College Don’t Report to the Police”, Eliza Gray cites that victims “know that reporting rape comes with a social risk, especially when the perpetrator is someone they know”. She refers to a study done in 2007, in which 42% of the “physically forced” victims who did not report the incident to the police said it was because they “did not want anyone to know””. The policy’s heavy emphasis on confidentiality means that now people can ask for help without the fear of unwanted information getting out—unless of course the implications of the information would indicate a risk to themselves or others.

The policy is to be reviewed every three years in order to adapt and better attend to the needs of the community.

Ideally, it is the hope that nobody will find themselves in a situation where these services are required. Nevertheless, it is encouraging and important that the University has made some tremendous steps forward in the ways it plans to deal with sexual violence, both on and off-campus.

News • The Strand

What’s brewing at Caffiends?

Hana Nikčević | Contributor Discreetly housed in Old Vic, Caffiends is occasionally dubbed Victoria College’s best-kept secret. Between the loyal crowd of regulars and a steady

stream of new visitors, it’s safe to say that the secret’s out. On Monday, the cafe re-opened after its annual summer hiatus and introduced a variety of changes that promise to make this year’s caffeine addiction notably better than last year’s.

The cafe now offers tea from Genuine Tea, a Toronto-based direct-trade company with a focus on providing fresh, high-quality teas. The majority of the teas are organic, and as Genuine Tea switches over to offering entirely organic teas later this year, the cafe will follow suit. Prices remain unchanged, with hot or iced tea available for $1.50 and tea lattes available for $3.50. Also on offer is the Tea of the Week promotion, wherein one featured tea each week is available for $1.25 (or $3.25 for a tea latte).

A shift to a higher quality product is also seen in the introduction of Japanese matcha (finely powdered green tea; Caffiends’s is ceremonial grade, also supplied by GenuineTea). It is lauded for its health benefits, such as antioxidant polyphenols and antiinflammatory chlorophyll. It is considered superior to those of standard green tea since, when drinking matcha, the entire tea leaf is consumed. Matcha is available hot or iced for $2.00, and as a latte for $4.00.

Rounding out the cafe’s novel features is the retirement of the manual cash register and the introduction of its replacement, the Square digital pointof-sale system. As a result of generous funding through the Victoria College Student Projects levy, Caffiends is now able to accept credit (VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover)

in addition to cash.

In the midst of all these changes, the cafe’s mission to be as environmentally sustainable as possible remains in the shape of their unique reusable mug policy—Caffiends does not offer takeout cups, but rather invites customers either to bring their own travel mug or to enjoy a drink from one of the cafe’s own eclectic collection of mugs. Customers have free reign to take a Caffiends mug anywhere on campus, so long as they return it to the café, or to the drop-off crate outside the cafe after hours.

Caffiends is open weekdays from 9:00am to 6:00pm, and is located in Room VC111 in the Old Victoria College Building.

TTC leaves riders without solutions Erin Calhoun | News Editor With record breaking temperatures occurring in Toronto this summer, the TTC received thousands of complaints from passengers about providing air conditioning in their cars on Line 2.

Mayor John Tory tried riding the sweltering Bloor-Danforth line after being challenged on Twitter by west-end resident, Bianca Spence. Tory found the ride uncomfortable and encouraged the TTC to “find ways to do better”, but not offering any funds to fuel repairs.

The problematic “hot-cars” among the TTC line 2 have been an inconvenience for commuters for several years.

The air conditioning is continuing to fail because of the lack of maintenance and obvious age of the units on the Line. “Tunnel fur”, which is a combination of human hair and skin, rodent feces, and debris accumulates along the tracks and is then sucked up and accumulates within the condensers. This

creates clogs in the air conditioning systems, not allowing cool air to flow.

The TTC said that air conditioning is not available in 15-20 percent of the 370 cars on the Bloor-Danforth line.

In an article with The Globe and Mail, Bob Kinnear, head of local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union stated that there has not been any work on said cars to increase comfort. Kinnear also stated that this was a problem of resources and “the inability of the TTC to recognize the effect of preventative maintenance”.

Tory promised the TTC and riders, “we will do better the next year and going forward”. After riding the entirety of the line, experiencing the heat and a passenger emergency that caused the train to momentarily slow down, Tory was 30 minutes late for his news conference. These are many of the trials daily TTC commuters face on their way to and from school, work and oth-

er activities.

This discomfort isn’t the first time commuters have been let down by the TTC. Early May 2016, U of T student Steve Warner found himself and a thousand other commuters unhappy with TTC service. Warner wrote a letter of concern and discontentment with the service provided by TTC after an uncomfortable and inconsiderate experience.

On the evening of May 19, 2016, service was suspended between Keele and Islington stations because of reported smoke at Jane and Runnymede stations and an empty train at High Park Station. Passengers were unloaded at Keele station, which was not built to handle that high capacity of passengers.

Trains continued to pull up and unload passengers. The TTC employee over the announcements began to instruct passengers to head to the shut-

tle buses, specifically anyone heading Eastbound to head to the Westbound platform, which was already where thousands of passengers were standing.

The instructions being delivered were from an actual TTC employee on site, where they were able to clearly see the safety concerns and confusion of the many congested passengers. Warner stated in his letter of concern to the TTC, “Everyone on the platform was trying to head to the shuttle buses, yes the crowd wasn’t moving at all.

Someone yelled for help. People were up against the edge of the platform. We literally could not leave”.

The TTC addressed the reported smoke and service disruption in a report on their website. They failed to communicate the discomfort and poor service delivery at the Keele station, where a dangerous situation was created by having thousands of passengers unloaded at a small station.

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After riding the entirety of the line, experiencing the heat and a passenger emergency that caused the train to momentarily slow down, Tory was 30 minutes late for his news conference Photo | Lelen Abeywardena

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Editorial • The Strand

OUR MASTHEAD

The benefits of extra-curriculars Why you should seriously consider getting involved Erik Preston | Editor-in-Chief

editor@thestrand.ca

Erik Preston Alexandra Scandolo

News

Erin Calhoun

Editors-in-Chief

news@thestrand.ca

Opinions

Shailee Koranne

opinions@thestrand.ca

Science science@thestrand.ca

Tanuj Ashwin Kumar

Features

Tamilore Oshodi

features@thestrand.ca

artsandculture@thestrand.ca

Molly Kay Elena Senechal-Becker

Film & Music

Joshua Kim

Arts & Culture

filmandmusic@thestrand.ca

Stranded

Celeste Yim

stranded@thestrand.ca

Copy Editing

Tristan McGrath-Waugh

copy@thestrand.ca

Design

Genevieve Wakutz

design@thestrand.ca

Photo

Rosa Kumar

photo@thestrand.ca

Art

Lynn Seolim Hong

art@thestrand.ca

web@thestrand.ca

Arjun Sawhney Justine Chen

Editorial Assistants

Vacant

Web

Contributors Anthony Burton, Bailey Hoy, CAL, Charlène Hanania, Connor Campbell, Dina Ginzburg, Hana Nikcevic, Heather McBrien, James Qiu, Kelly De Hoop, Luca Bellisario, Miao Liu, Wilf Mose Copy Editors Alexandra Scandolo, Erik Preston, Tristan McGrath-Waugh Illustrations Connor Campbell, Lynn Seolim Hong, Maia Grecco Photos Alexandra Scandolo, Charlène Hanania, Elena Senechal-Becker, Jess Daneluk, Lelen Abeywardena, Molly Kay, Rhea Bhatia, Rosa Kumar Cover Photo Hana Nikcevic

The Strand has been the newspaper of record for Victoria University since 1953. It is published 12 times a year with a circulation of 2000 and is distributed in Victoria University buildings and across the University of Toronto’s St. George campus.

The Strand flagrantly enjoys its editorial autonomy and is committed to acting as an agent of constructive social change. As such, we will not publish material deemed to exhibit racism, sexism, homo/transphobia, ableism, or other oppressive language.

The Strand is a proud member of the Canadian University Press (CUP).

Our offices are located at 150 Charles St. W., Toronto, ON, M5S 1K9. Please direct enquiries by email to editor@thestrand.ca. Submissions are welcome and may be edited for taste, brevity, and legality.

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A common piece of advice given to all students at the going to be successful and enjoy your time here. Getting beginning of each school year is to find a way to get involved will help you find this community—or add to involved. We all see the recruitment posts across campus, the one that you’ve already found. The university spends online, and in our inboxes. Like many students, I tend to an incredible amount of resources trying to better student delete these emails immediately, and I never attended an life here, something that we as students pay for. This is open house or signed up for anything at a clubs fair. I used something you can and should take advantage of. to believe that extra-curriculars weren’t a good use of time, Outside of the benefits to your future self, getting at least for me, as I preferred to involved also has the advantage of focus on school and dedicate my grounding you within university, spare time to working and making and offering you a way to separate Finding your own money. yourself from your school work community within this when you need a break. You aren’t This was my way of thinking. My mentality was that I was going to enjoy your time here as massive institution is spending enough money to be much if the only way you spend it here, I should be focusing my time essential if you’re going is doing school work, and sufferon improving my grades and geting through the stress that comes to be successful and ting my moneys-worth. But there along with it. Having something are studies out there that point out enjoy your time here to take your mind off school work, the merits of getting involved, and something that will get you out of they’re definitely worth considerRobarts once in a while, is ing. absolutely essential.

A study by the Chronicle of Higher Education

Writing to you now as the co-Editor-in-Chief of asked employers about the relative importance of attria student-run publication, it’s clear that at some point, my butes in evaluating University graduates for hire. You may mentality changed. I’m very glad it did. I can tell you firstbe surprised to find out that volunteer experience and hand that getting involved really does help to enrich your extracurricular activities ranked higher than GPA, college university experience, and you will come out the other end reputation, and relevance of coursework. feeling a lot more satisfied with your time here. Do some

A big part of enjoying your university experience research, ask around, and you’re sure to find something is finding a community. The University of Toronto has that will peak your interest. The bottom line is that if you over 86,000 enrolled students, nearly 60,000 of which actually enjoy your time at school, you may find yourself study at the St. George campus. Finding your own commore motivated to be successful within it, and come out munity within this massive institution is essential if you’re the other end feeling more satisfied with your experience.

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Hey Vic Clubs, want to advertise your upcoming

events in

thE strand?

Submit your posters and advertisements to editor@thestrand.ca Advertisements will be published on a firstcome, first-serve basis for Victoria College organizations

Science • The Strand

Cracks in the ice Living on the right side of the fissures of climate change Tanuj Kumar | Science Editor The immediate nature of anthropogenic climate change can oftentimes be used as a political or economic talking piece, bargaining chip, or excuse for (one-sided) debate. Under most circumstances, the cracks it causes in the structure of our society and the equilibrium of our world are paradoxical: we notice the biggest changes after years of careful observation and yet, the time scale for these big changes grows smaller every year. Is there a way to gauge exactly how bad we’ve been messing up the planet? It’s a complex question, but we can consider recent data on regions of the Earth that are the most sensitive to this worldwide increase in temperature—in particular, Antarctica’s ice shelves.

Ice shelves are massive, monolithic beasts. They form when glaciers flow towards the coasts, depositing a giant blanket of ice onto the water that can reach up to 1000 meters in height. To picture that, imagine yourself standing by Toronto’s waterfront, facing away from the lake. If an ice shelf were right where the CN Tower currently stands, it would be almost double the tower’s height. Ordinarily, one would expect these ice shelves, by virtue of their immense size, to hold up to rising temperatures.

However, this is far from the case. Around 2002, the Larsen B ice shelf, boasting an area rivalling Rhode Island, disintegrated completely in a drawnout collapse attributed to anthropogenic global warming’s effect on Antarctic temperatures. Heat and humanity had slain a behemoth that lay resting for 10,000 years. This wholesale slaughter has not yet paused.

Larsen C, the largest shelf and the last remaining survivor, has gained the recent attention of scientists who are tracking a deeply widening crack— ”fissure” may be a better term at this point—that threatens to break off another giant hunk of ice and potentially lead to another disintegration event.

For two years, the scientists of the Project MIDAS Antarctic research team have been following the growth of Larsen C’s fissure, and alarm bells are ringing with its sudden growth in such a short time period. Between 2011 and 2015 the fissure had extended itself about 30 kilometers. This year alone, however, Larsen C’s crack has added an extra 30 more kilometers to its length, and is now about

350 kilometers in length and 130 kilometers wide, carving out an area the size of Delaware. Project MIDAS claims that about 9 to 12 percent of the ice will be removed after a potential collapse event, which, according to their computer simulations, is a likely possibility.

The problem herein lies with the source of ice in an ice shelf. Generally, these are glacial and therefore come from land-based sources. Because ice of this kind is initially landlocked, any parts that find themselves near or within the sea, only to melt afterwards, will almost certainly help raise the sea level. The question is: how much? Ice chunks the size of Delaware shouldn’t do much, but what comes after might be more startling. As parts of ice sheets collapse, the remaining structures tend to be unstable. Cascading collapse events can occur, leading to further disintegration of the sheet. With enough glacial ice in the water, rising sea levels are almost always a direct result—all from a single crack in the ice.

The dangers of rising sea levels are insidious.

Excluding the potential changes to ecological systems on the edges of contents and entire island archipelagos, much of historical human activity has been concentrated around sources of water, including the extensive use of coastlines. Rising seas bring more floods and environmental dangers, the increased saltiness of soils closer to the coast, and the destruction of swaths of economic output and human habitation. Entire nations may potentially disappear, as we see with the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and Kiribati in the Pacific. Although both are still relatively intact, saltier soils from the higher water levels have negatively affecting local agriculture. These and many other nations in similar positions, whose livelihoods and histories are at risk of being consumed by this environmental Pandora’s box, serve as the valiant vanguards of an international campaign for tackling global warming’s effects. But even this campaign has its many cracks.

COP21, the Paris Climate Change Conference, was lauded as a success for worldwide action on global warming. For good reason too, considering its scope of coverage and the 195 countries agreeing by consensus on the Paris Agreement to setting

limitations on carbon output and keeping global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius. However, what was in itself a symbol of humanity’s potential ability to cooperate together, might continue to be muddled in bureaucratic stagnation and half-promises, as some critics fear. The lack of enforcement of these goals and the snail-paced ratification of some of the world’s largest polluting nations, including the United States and China, means that the agreement might not reach the idealistic expectations set upon it. Excluding the sizable contingent of politicians—along with an infamously raucous presidential candidate in the United States—who sleep on fragile mattresses of $50 bills thrown by fossil fuel corporations desperate to fight against environmental truths, political apathy becomes the campaign’s worst enemy. Intentions are pure and good deeds are idealistic, but nations shift in what is considered important and short-term goals stacking together can at times overshadow long-term ones that don’t seem as immediate, even when their pace speeds up every year.

The biggest risk here is not the act of intentionally trying to warm the earth, but of being apathetic enough to pay it no heed until it is too late and the world cracks a bit more.

The crack that threatens to break apart Larsen C will not retreat. The ancient sheet will follow its siblings in its disintegration back into the sea, and thousands of miles away, little turquoise fingers edging out of the warm Pacific will inch a tiny bit closer to the crooked palm trees by a sunbaked road in Kiribati’s South Tarawa. The crack that threatens to break apart our fragile existence will not retreat. As the seas rise, so shall the feet and hopes of those who were forsaken by men in suits a thousand miles away, and watched their lives fall into the choking blue tides.

While the ingenuity and cooperation of humanity may not ultimately be crushed by an ice shelf of apathy, we must keep our eyes on the climate data that increasingly serves as our lifeline, and make sure that we will be on the right side of this ultimate fissure.

Photos | Rosa Kumar

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Opinions • The Strand

The Bindi is so much more than an accessory Shailee Koranne | Opinions Editor

Illustration | Maia Grecco

“Ek chutki sindoor ki keemat tum kya jaane?” is an immortal line from the Bollywood movie Om Shanti Om that translates to “how would you know the value of a pinch of a sindoor?” Sindoor is the red-orange powder that married South-Asian women wear on their foreheads to signify their marital status. The sindoor is arguably rooted in patriarchal roles of husband and wife in which the wife must wear the mark of her marriage, but I can’t speak for the many women in modern-day South Asia who wear it; after all, that line from Om Shanti Om is delivered from a woman to her disloyal husband who does not respect the sanctity of their marriage. I think about that line in a different context—when non-South Asians try to tell me about how the bindi is just a sticker and accessory. How would you know what it’s worth?

The bindi has historical, religious, spiritual, and aesthetic roots tracing back hundreds of centuries in South Asia. It exists in many forms besides the sparkly rhinestone-y kind that has appeared in Western pop culture on

the foreheads of Gwen Stefani, Madonna, Miley Cyrus, and countless rave goers since the 90s. In South Asia, the adorning of the forehead with dyed paste, a sticker, or jewelry is a long-running tradition that has touched the life of every South Asian in some way, whether it be as a part of a puja (religious ceremony), or at a wedding. Bindis aren’t reserved for cis women—they are worn by lots of SouthAsians regardless of gender. Certain forms of the bindi, such as the tilak, have been worn by men and women throughout South-Asian history.

To me, the bindi is beautiful, but it’s about so much more than aesthetics. I mostly wear bindis when I go to Indian weddings with my family, whether they’re being held in India or here in North America. The process of picking out a bindi is so fun—a wedding outfit simply isn’t complete without one. I have dozens of bindis, and my aunt has hundreds. When I’m done getting into my salwar kameez or sari, I try on different shapes, sizes, designs, and colours of bindis until I find the one that looks best with my outfit. I only wear one, slightly above the middle of my eyebrows.

When I was younger and living in India, I would put a tiny bindi at the outer corner of each eye, just for fun. I remember standing in front of the mirror with my cousin with little jewels on our faces, standing in a patch of sunlight and turning our heads from side to side to watch the sun gleam off our faces.

When I moved to Canada, I felt uncomfortable wearing bindis, or anything else that was a distinct part of South Asian culture, because I saw how people could use those things to “other” me from everyone else. South Asian people have been attacked for wearing bindis before, both physically and verbally. In Canada, I’ve never worn a bindi outside of a wedding or my home, but I wish I could. I want to incorporate bindis into my completely Western outfits with confidence in the way that white and non-South Asian celebrities are able to, but there is a very real social structure of racism and “other-ing” that makes me afraid to be myself.

That’s why wearing a bindi is so important to me when I visit my family back in India. During my most recent trip back to Mumbai, I wore a bindi just for stepping out and running errands with my dad. It felt liberating, and it made me so happy to be able to wear my culture on my face. Wearing a bindi makes me feel really close to my

Indian family. When I’m not in India, I miss it so much, and I wish I could wear a bindi here and proudly show my cultural identity to people. But, when you’ve been the brunt of racist and snide comments about bindis when you weren’t even wearing one, you become afraid to face the world with one on your face for real.

Think about it this way: some of us have scoffed at bandwagoners for wearing a Beatles shirt even though they only know three or four of their songs, or a Nirvana shirt, not because they love the music, but because Kurt Cobain is an icon in grunge culture. Even if we haven’t judged someone for wearing iconography relating to a certain band, TV show, or any fandom that they aren’t really a part of, we understand what die-hard fans may be feeling when they see someone rocking merch just for the aesthetic. We all know how frustrating it is to understand how great a band/show/movie is but seeing it reduced to plain, cheap, commodified goods for the sake of fashion.

If you are not South-Asian, think about the relationship that brown people in the diaspora have with all the cultures that they are a part of. When you’re thousands of miles away from a place that you consider your home, in the times you miss home the most, the little physical, material, and movable objects from your home become important to you. To non-South Asians, or even some South-Asians who are not in the diaspora, the bindi might be a meaningless accessory, but to me, the bindi is a physical reminder and representation of a culture that I spend most of my life separated from. It is so much more than a sparkly sticker— it is unique, and carries the memories and feelings of being in warm, sunny, dynamic Mumbai with my family. It reminds me of the traditions, celebrations, and values that I get to be a part of because of my heritage.

If you’re not South Asian, try to understand what the bindi is worth to South Asians like me. Understand how privileged you are to be able to wear a bindi without being ridiculed or reduced to stereotypes about your culture, and what it means that you can wear a bindi for aesthetic purposes without anxiety but I can’t wear a bindi without being afraid even though I love it so much.

I’m going to try and incorporate the bindi into my life away from India. It might be hard, but my identity is important to me, and to wear it proudly and without fear is something I hope to be able to do one day soon.

Photo | Jess Daneluk

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Opinions • The Strand

On opting out The UTSU Health and Dental plan’s yes/no binary leaves some students in the lurch Anthony Burton | Contributor Have you opted out? Good luck. You’ve got two more weeks. The UTSU’s health and dental coverage, which makes up a good portion of the compulsory fees paid to our union every year, provides crucial benefits like prescription subsidies and travel coverage. For some students, having this benefit coverage is the difference between good health and illness. Others may never use it. However, not every student falls into a yes/no setup for extended healthcare coverage, and for those who find themselves in these margins, it’s yet another hurdle to jump through every year to make university a financial reality.

There are many careers that offer powerful benefit packages but relatively low income, and we have unions to thank for that—it’s a lot less palatable to cut benefits than it is to cut income, especially during periods of economic downturn, and many of these health benefits make easier,

the lives of workers and their families.

However, it’s for students in situations like these that the superfluity of the UTSU’s health and dental plan becomes a problem. These parental benefits don’t have any direct liquidity, and so when they overlap with student health plans, there’s money being wasted. And for some, that’s money that can pay for schoolbooks, part of a month’s rent, groceries, and more.

Say you’ve got a parent in the previously-mentioned position. Opting out is your best option. Where do you begin? Well, here’s a walkthrough for the uninitiated. On the UTSU website, you click through to get to the health plan information, and then you need to log in and provide proof of other coverage. This latter part is exceptionally vague, because different providers will use different terminology for the “plan number.” After you type in your info,

you’re done. No confirmation email, no precise date to expect confirmation—just a notice telling you that if you entered everything correctly, you’ll get a refund “after the opt-out period ends.”

This process needs to be easier. It needs to be easier for those people for whom opting out means the difference between a new book and a tattered, outdated edition. It needs to be easier for those who are already spending a good chunk of their introductory weeks applying for bursaries, scholarships, and other financial aid; and for those who don’t want to deal with the added anxiety of not knowing whether their opt-out request even went through. The UTSU is always fighting the good fight for lower tuition charges, but there’s a quick-fix right under our noses for some students who, as it stands, are falling through the cracks.

Photo | Alexandra Scandolo

Close University, Save Humanity?

CAL | Contributor Walking amongst the masses of students on campus, it’s a stark reminder that summer is over, and it’s time to get back into the mindset of being a student.

Suddenly, I am confronted with a large and eye-catching sign that boldly reads: “Save Humanity. Close Universities.”

The bearer of this poster challenges all that we are as students, all that we have invested ourselves in.

For the rest of the day I continue to think about the message and contemplate the reasons for which I am against it. I’ve considered that this may just be a case of self-affirmation, as I convince myself that I’m doing the right thing by being at the University of Toronto.

Is it not problematic to believe that my education at U of T is actually destructive to humanity itself? It is through education and exposure to our extremely diverse student population that we strive to do the opposite and become better citizens of our global community.

As I rushed to class, with only a fleeting glimpse at

the individual standing behind this message, I deeply regret not having the opportunity to stop and ask “what does this mean?”. Perhaps that opportunity will come, but regardless I was left to contemplate the bigger picture, of why I, and so many others, are attending university. According to Stats Canada, over 1.3 million individuals are currently enrolled in universities across the nation, so why are this many Canadians opting to give their money to an institution that the individual behind the poster is so clearly against?

I took to finding empirical support to back up what I believe to be true. I came across research presented by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario in 2013-2014, that demonstrated that Canadian post-secondary education is working towards creating more engaged and informed citizens. Relieved, I continued on. Reading the Trends In Higher Education Series published by the US College Board in 2013, it is apparent that regardless of one’s age, higher levels of education positively correspond with

both voting registration and voting in federal elections. Though it may seem evident that well-educated individuals are more politically engaged, I also found that university graduates are more than twice as likely to give their time to community organizations when compared with high school graduates. After completing undergraduate degrees, people are measurably more involved in highly consequential public decisions. It is much more than just a feeling that we are doing something useful here.

I sincerely hope that I do not stand alone in the belief that students are doing good through their educational pursuits. As a result, I implore you to take a moment prior to this new school year to consider what you gain from university, aside from clearly measurable outcomes. I am grateful to this sign-holder for highlighting the importance and the significant potential that we have as students. Attending university and bettering humanity can go hand in hand.

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Features • The Strand

Just Go Seeking Advice fr Tamilore Oshodi | Features Editor

I have a slight over-reliance on the Internet.

Ranging from social networking sites includWell, let’s just agree to say its a “substantial” de- ing Twitter and Facebook, other media platpendence. But not to worry. I know for certain forms such as YouTube and whatever other I’m not the only one. articles you scour from the dark crevices of the Internet, now we can seek input on the We all go to the Internet to seek help regard- most miniscule questions and situing many assortments of issues ranging from ations of life. Nonetheless, personal health to construction—even friendwe shouldn’t be sheepish ship and health advice. You may have asked about it. the Internet for advice or even gave the advice, whether anonymously, under a pseudonym We should con(CatWhisperer2020?) or even under your own sider ourselves name. Basically, the Internet has grown to be lucky to have the information mecca of the world and more so much inspecifically, the hub of self-appointed masters formation of life and all things entailed within it. at our fingertips.

We should note that our generation came So goes about after the world had achieved great feats the times in technology. So, it shouldn’t seem out the of pourordinary that we should developed a certain ing over form of attachment to it. From everyday issues numerto life’s greatest and most arduous dilemmas, ous books dilemmas that are usually left to the workings and asking of interpersonal relations, people have now sud- whichever denly been diverted to the World Wide Web for family memanswers. ber and friend we can find, just With the click of a mouse/track pad (tell me to find the answer to again how tech savvy you are), the answers to our burning questions the most embarrassing questions that one can’t at the end of our quest. I even fathom the thought of asking another hu- can hear the whines and moans man being are immediately right in front of us. of the nostalgic, but it’s time to accept If you’re of a more socially awkward personalthat times are simply easier for a reason and it’s ity like me, it’s probably become the answer to better to make use of that reason than to waste your one of your oldest prayers. it. The web has given a wider range of responses from self-proclaimed gurus of life on each social platform, no matter the geographical location!

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Features • The Strand

oogle It! rom the Internet Yes, you can be a preserver of specific things and movements of times passed, but also realize that it would be a shame to miss out on the growing enigma in itself, the Internet.

You get the final say!

But in the end, coming from someone who fails at times to take life by its reins and rarely jumps headfirst into projects to see where it would take me, you need to just clench your It would be untrue to say that as fists and live your life. A quick skim through with the increase of reliance an online text or video should be enough to get on the Internet for guidthe information you need, but for it to be taken ance, so came the deto the point of using the Internet as a crutch cline of the need for for any decision in your life...it’s unhealthy! parental figures Your life should be distinctively yours alone and or mentors. The less like the self-help master on that off-base Illustra tion | L emergence of blog. ynn Ho ng the Internet shouldn’t Such was the time that I was preparing to be to take leave home for university, filled with anxiety over these over what to expect, that I devoted long nights roles but to to scouring the internet for advice, only to rather sup- meet, “20 Ways To Make Friends During Frosh plement it. Week” and “How to not Miss Out on College But as usu- Fun.” In reality, at times I just needed to stop al, with the being so bothered about the future and live good comes whatever experience life gave me in my own the bad. It unique way because only I knew what would is important work for me. to not forget that people onWith the digital age, many are at ease with line are taking each asking whatever questions they desire from the day as it comes, just Internet for the fact that it removes the comas you are, whilst takplicated process of going through individuals. ing whatever life throws at Coupled with answers within reach in a matthem. From what I have noticed, ter of seconds, it’s practically a Godsend. Ask the web is filled with individuals who and you shall find, as they say! The key is just believe they have cracked the greatest puzzles critically analyzing whatever piece of informaof life and so do their blinded followership. In tion you get and not using it to the point that essence, it should all be taken with a pinch of it takes over each decision of your life as to stop salt. It becomes your responsibility and is up to your personal experience and journey of life. your discretion to determine if its right for you.

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Arts & Culture • The Strand

Casual September soup and salad Easy-to-make fall recipes for students Heather McBrien | Contributor So school has started, which means it’s time to start eating like a student. But don’t feel pressured to conform to the instant noodle stereotype, because with a small investment of time and money, you could enjoy a home-cooked meal with a lot more substance. Here are recipes for butternut squash soup and wild rice salad that can go nicely together for a lunch or dinner, and that will keep well in the fridge (and even get more delicious—letting aromatic foods like curry relax overnight does get you a blended and more developed flavour). Not one for cooking? Give these a try—they’re pretty simple and cheap, but mostly delicious. September is a great time to try new things.

The stigma of solitude Reflections from a first year student on the value of spending time alone Miao Liu | Contributor

Customizable Curried Butternut Squash Soup with Maple Syrup Ingredients: 4 tbsp your favourite benign oil 5 shallots or 1 large onion, depending on how committed you’re feeling 2 or 3 cloves garlic 1 tsp finely chopped ginger 1 ½ - 2 tbsp curry powder 2 tsp coriander 1 tsp ground cumin ½ tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp nutmeg 1 or more (or fewer) red Thai chilli pepper(s) 1 large butternut squash 1 can (~400 mL) coconut milk 3 ½ cups vegetable broth The last four ingredients are optional and can be used for garnish: Lime juice or maple syrup Coconut milk Cilantro Roasted pumpkin seeds Heat a pan—add 2tbsp of oil, and cook shallots/onion, garlic, ginger, spices, and chilli pepper. Cook until onions are translucent. The quantities of spices, as always, are approximate and will vary depending on the size of your squash and how much liquid you add to your soup.

Chop the butternut squash into small cubes. How small, you ask? It doesn’t really matter—no smaller than 2 cm, but the closer they are to that size, the faster they’ll cook. Sauté the butternut squash cubes with another 2tbsp of oil in a separate pan until they are soft on the outside but still hard in the middle. Then, combine with the onion mixture in a larger pot.

Add the can of coconut milk (leaving a small amount to garnish) and the vegetable broth, then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the squash is soft. Add salt and pepper to taste, then garnish with limejuice or maple syrup, coconut milk, and cilantro. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds. Take a picture if you did that last part. If not, just eat the soup. That’s all there is to it, congrats!

Wild Rice Salad with Dried Cranberries and Walnuts Ingredients: 1½ cups uncooked wild rice ½ dried, sweetened cranberries ½ cup chopped, salted walnuts ½ finely chopped dried apricots ½ finely chopped fresh apple

Existing untethered between the fringe of blooming teenager and independent adult, high school graduate and first year university student, hatches a nervousness warranted by any period of transition. Particularly during my first days on campus, while adjusting to the frightening novelty of living away from home for the first time, I often found myself in situations as a fortified “I”. Grabbing breakfast at Burwash alone, attending Frosh activities solo, and visiting the bookstore accompanied by only my headphones. Despite the high likelihood that these feelings were shared by all newly arrived students, who were also separated from everything familiar, I found the solitude heavily disconcerting. I was alone. And to me, that meant I was lonely.

Eventually, my feelings dissipated as I made friends and bonded with others on my floor. However, emerging through the ruins of discomfort was a question that flashed alarmingly bright and monopolized all my brain space: why was I so unsettled by doing things in public alone? Even back home, trying a new restaurant, attending a street festival, or seeing a band perform were situations that necessitated a companion. I became aware of an active and unfounded stigma around attending events alone.

Spending time in your own company is inevitable and encouraged. This much is evident in the myriad of wellness articles, books, etc. that emphasize “me time”. However, when publicized and brought beyond the confines of private space into crowds and venues, anxiety and fear of appearing strange, abnormal, or a loner materialize.

Although friends What I’m slowly learning is that there is no shame in solican be pillars of tude. Although friends can be pillars of familiarity in foreign familiarity in environments or someone to share experiences with, spendforeign ing time alone is equally valid and worthwhile. Yes, there are environments or copious health benefits, such as increased concentration. Howsomeone to share ever, solitude adds an entirely singular texture to experiences. experiences with, You have the infinite space of your own thoughts, the sudden spending time alone convulsions of curiosities, and the spontaneous exhalation of is equally valid and self will, all of which allowing an interaction with your surworthwhile. roundings that is different from any spliced experiences.

Last Tuesday, I visited an exhibit on the portrayal of gender in Japanese prints at the Royal Ontario Museum. I was alone. It was wonderful. I then wondered how often I’ve missed out on experiences by simply fearing the stigma of public solitude. We are lucky, living in a creative hub, to have access to bar shows, movie screenings, and copious cultural events only a subway ride away. Solitude and comfort exist in symbiosis, a liberating realization. I plan on unapologetically taking advantage of these opportunities, both with friends and by myself.

“

Dressing: 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar 3 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp salt Pepper to taste ½ a red onion 1 clove garlic 1 tsp rosemary ½ basil

Illustration | Lynn Hong

Cook the rice then fluff it with a fork. Stir in the chopped nuts and fruit. Finely chop the red onion and garlic then blanch them both. Combine the vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, onions, garlic, and herbs. Stir the combination into the rice. This salad is fantastic if you use fresh rosemary and basil, although dried herbs work well too.

Serve warm or cold—they’re both good, so you can’t go wrong!

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Illustration | Lynn Hong

Arts & Culture • The Strand

Social media’s newfound freedom: the rise of “Finstas” Elena Senechal-Becker | Arts & Culture Editor I’m not sure to what extent my parents stalk my various social media accounts, but the one thing they keep telling me is: “Don’t put anything on the internet that you wouldn’t want everyone in the world to see.” This is a fear we all hold very close to our hearts.

As a generation who grew up in the midst of social media’s rising popularity, we don’t want a future employer to peep those photos of you getting drunk off Raspberry Absolut in your friend’s basement apartment. But recently, social media, and Instagram in particular, has become more than just a way of sharing daily shenanigans; it’s become a networking tool, and a platform to showcase your very best self. Artists of all stripes use it to share photos of their work, and pretty people can sometimes make a living off of posting selfies. Even for us regulars, Instagram can be a place where we don’t feel entirely comfortable sharing everything (depending on how many of your extended family members/potential employers/ medium-quality high school friends follow you).

Enter: The Finstagram. Urban Dictionary gives us the following definition for this term coined on the website in 2013 by user “Girls That Are Cool”: “Finstagram, finsta for short, is a mixture of Fake & Instagram. People get a second Instagram account along with their real instagrams, rinstagrams, to post any pictures or videos they desire. The photos or videos posted are usually funny or embarrassing. Only your closest friends

follow this account.”

If we consider that Instagram has only been around for 6 years (it was released in 2010), “finstas” or fake instagrams, have existed for half of this time.

However, they have met a recent surge in popularity due to many factors. As Instagram gets older, users amass a larger following, a growing pressure to keep up a “theme”. Having an Instagram theme usually implies sticking to one specific kind of post; be it based on colour, aesthetics, content, a themed feed stays consistent. Of course, a themed feed also racks up more followers (lifestyle, food, memes). But is it truly representative of that user’s day to day life?

Probably not.

I made my finsta last February when I realized that I wanted my real Instagram (or “rinsta) to be a place where I could post my artistic work and network with other artist friends. But, I also needed a dumping ground for screenshots of my roommate’s funny texts and some less-than-pristine selfies. So, I made a private instagram account that I only shared with close friends. I won’t disclose my finsta handle for the time being, but I will say this: having a finsta has actually helped improve my rapport with social media in general. I hadn’t felt free to share what I actually wanted to share on any platform for awhile.

I felt that I didn’t want to be “annoying” or share intimate details of my life with followers that I barely

knew. However, that didn’t mean that I didn’t want to share... It can be extremely cathartic to post anything on a whim, without having to “filter”, so to speak, your appearance or your thoughts. I know that many people believe that social media makes you feel alienated from the real world, but in my case—in the finsta case—it brought me closer to the people I love.

Photo | Elena Senechel-Becker

Celebrity sightings at TIFF: exciting or exasperating?

Molly Kay | Arts & Culture Editor This year marks the forty-first annual Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF, one of the largest film festivals in the world, is internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious and high-profile celebrations of film and culture.

So, it’s only natural that every year this event attracts several celebrated and outstanding members of the film community from all around the globe.

Right at the heart of the Entertainment District, many of TIFF’s venues are located along King Street West. On the first Friday of the festival, I was walking along this street, completely unaware of any TIFF premieres that were taking place that afternoon. As I made my way closer to the Princess of Wales Theatre, I was greeted by a crowd of about a thousand screaming fans. Admittedly, my curiosity got the best of me and I decided to investigate the cause of all of this commotion.

As it turns out, I had made it just in time for the red carpet appearances for the premiere of Fisher Stevens’ documentary film, Before the Flood. This film explores the envi-

ronmental implications of climate change, and most notably, it stars Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio. And surely enough, there he was front and centre, sporting a striking navy blue suit along with a perfect tan and his signature boyish smile.

Immediately, I was struck by the very clear divide between the enthusiastic, starstruck fans and the cynical Torontonians who were simply trying to cross the street. The former proudly declared their love for Leo as they screamed out: “Leo! We love you, Leo! Over here, Leo!” Meanwhile, frustrated pedestrians made aggressive comments, such as: “Who the fuck cares? They’re regular people too! Get the hell out of my way!”

I found myself somewhere in the middle of all of this chaos. Sure, I was dazzled to be standing so close to such a charming and talented actor but somehow it felt very surreal. I suddenly began to feel extremely self-conscious as I stood among the horde of shouting people and I became very aware of what it felt like be a part of a crowd fawning over the presence of a handsome celebrity. In all honesty, I realized that I felt pretty ridiculous. I decided to leave the crowd and make my way back to the subway.

TIFF is a staple of the arts and culture scene here in Toronto. The festival, which spans over a 10-day period, is a very exciting time for lovers of film and celebrity culture alike. Sometimes, these experiences unfold right in front of you when you least expect them.. Nonetheless, this only adds to the unpredictable and exhilarating nature of this festival. No matter which side you find yourself on, whether it is enthusiastic or irritated, TIFF’s intoxicating atmosphere is an experience like no other.

Photo | Molly Kay

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Film & Music • The Strand

How to get it wrong and win an Oscar On historical accuracy and costuming in popular film Bailey Hoy | Contributor If you have a laptop and a decent internet connection, it seems the majority of your time is spent streaming when you should be studying. If you’re anything like me, then sometimes you’ll be watching stuff unrelated to the task at hand, but just intellectual enough that you don’t feel (too) guilty.

This potentially being your case, the film Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) might be on your “to watch” list. It’s based off a book, it is historical and dramatic, and the costumes are visually stunning. Because I like horror even though I’m a total sissy, The Witch: A New England Folktale (2015), also makes the list. Though it was critically acclaimed, a common criticism of the film is that it’s too slow and “boring”.

The highly dramatic Memoirs seems to have it all then, except for the fact that it’s wrong. The costumes were wrong, the makeup was wrong, and the hair was wrong, yet Memoirs still netted designer Colleen Atwood her second Oscar. Why was a blatantly inaccurate portrayal of a culture the best costume design of the year? In a way, because it

was right. By contrast, The Witch did not win designer Linda Muir a single award.

The fundamental difference between Memoirs and The Witch is what the movies are selling. Memoirs, written

by Arthur Golding, is a Cinderella story about a young girl’s coming-of-age in the “floating world” of the geisha, and her love for a male client.

The Witch is also about a young girl’s coming-ofage, except surrounded by paranoia, religious hysteria, and a pervasive fear of the devil.

Set in 1630 New England, one of the films primary focuses is the potential destructiveness of puritanical beliefs. As such, Linda Muir did extensive research into the accuracy of the costumes in the film. Indeed, a

major selling point of the films promotion was the exhaustive research done in every aspect of the film to insure historical accuracy. This focus on the historical leaves the designer with fewer options of expression, and more pressure to deliver history as it was with as little alterations as possible — sometimes at the expense of the audience’s interest.

Memoirs, a movie focused on a story with a historical setting but no real accuracy, is given a freedom, which The Witch is not. The costumes in Memoirs are gorgeous, but totally wrong, a fact often stated in promotional interviews. Atwood made the choice to sacrifice important symbols in the geisha’s attire in favour of telling a story that Western audiences could connect to. Whether the translucent

white makeup, high chignon and oversexualized kimonos in the film can be read as a stereotype is for the individual to decide. The aim, however, is to draw western audiences into a long ago and exotic but hopefully relatable film.

This is the difference between Memoirs and The Witch. The Witch requires historical accuracy to draw audiences into the film, whilst Memoirs requires the exact opposite.

As a costume designer for the Victoria College Drama Society (VCDS), and a history major, I often face the dilemma of accuracy in my shows. A play I’m designing for this current year, Peter Pan, is technically based in turn-of-the-century London, but in such a fantastical play, is it more or less important to dress the children accurately? What is accuracy? Is it history’s perspective or is it the director’s vision of what it should be?

Ultimately, you must make the choice that you feel will tell the story you wish to tell. Accurate, but unrelatable? Relatable, but misleading? In the end, that’s for the audience to decide.

Photo| DWilliams, Pixabay

On Slow Cinema James Qiu | Contributor Sitting at roughly two and a half hours, both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Interstellar are lengthy in runtime. What establishes the former as a masterwork of filmmaker is its unhurried pacing, consistent long takes, and realistic depiction of boredom in space travel. In other words, 2001 is a rare example of mainstream Slow Cinema.

Slow Cinema is a term first coined

by British film critic Jonathan Romney in his observation of an emerging trend in art films of the 21st century. Synonymous with Contemplative Cinema, Slow Cinema is characterized by an awareness of temporality, minimalist aesthetics, and an enigmatic focus on the mundane. The pessimist films of Béla Tarr and humanist films of Edward Yang may come to mind, as well as the opening of Once Upon a Time in

the West. However, a better way to under- acclaim and are often seen at the top of stand the subject is to see it as a reaction major film rankings. Similarly, the Slow to the fast-paced films of the modern age, Cinema of the past receives the same a phenomenon that has its roots in mu- high praise and recognition, namely sic videos and the integration the works of Tarkovsky, Ozu, of their fast-cutting gramAntonioni, Wenders, and mar into feature films at Akerman. This disparSlow the dawn of the 1980s. ity in reception from As a result, American casual filmgoers and Cinema film critic Robert cinephiles contribKoehler labels Slow ute to the notion offers a Cinema as “a kind that these types of of counterculture of films are only for much-needed its own.” those masochistic As an opposienough to endure e s ca p e tion to the dominant them. On the contrend, Slow Cinema is trary, Slow Cinema offers commonly shunned for its a much-needed escape from esotericism and repeatedly branded the frantic rush of contemporary as “boring” and “a waste of time.” The life, as well as a unique, meditative exsame films paradoxically attain critical perience.

Béla Tarr’s seven and a half hour Sátántangó might be the perfect example to use. With shots lasting up to ten minutes and characters often marching through eternal downpour and callous gales, this film hypnotizes with its steady rhythm and striking black and white cinematography. The lulls in narrative momentum offer us time to not worry about the future but ruminate on the present. When confronted with visual austerity, the mind— used to receiving and processing information—resorts to creating and projecting information onto the screen. Hence, the film becomes immensely personal; the auteur grants viewers an opportunity for introspection while simultaneously presenting them with an audiovisual experience. Slow Cinema transforms spectatorship into a silent, private colloquy between viewer and director.

TIFF Review: UNA Charlène Hanania | Contributor Una is an adaption of the play Blackbird, written by David Horrower.

Two major challenges were faced by director Benedict Andrews when creating the movie: transforming a theater play into a movie without losing its character, and dealing sensibly with the topic of sexual abuse. Andrews’ directing made it feasible for the audience to understand the complexity of the characters and built the essence of the movie with his style.

Una is the story of a young woman reaching out to the men who abused her as a teenager. Andrews presents the storyline through flashbacks, which made the audience slowly grasp the

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nature of their relationship. Una comes to Ray’s office having not seen him for fifteen years, he goes through a moment of shock when he sees her and doesn’t accept her sudden return in his life. While mentally balancing their past and present, Una’s purpose for seeing Ray becomes unclear. We understand the relationship was more of a love affair than sexual abuse.

Indeed, as she lets love appear in her discourse, we can see that she is trying to figure out if he is still attracted by her. To support this confusion, Benedict Andrew moves from past to present with long shots that slowly transform the movie into a mel-

ancholy. He fixes the camera on her as a thirteen year-old that developed a sense of sensuality with her long hair, but Una, even as a grown woman, still has that same long hair. This element poses a contrast between Ray, since he has moved on with his life, and her, as she stayed in the same place as she was fifteen years ago. Thus we can clearly see that she is devoured by anger, not because he abused her but because she was in love with him and he left her to live with the consequences of their relationship. Andrews created a certain elegancy to this movie by not shooting any inappropriate moments. This style contributed to the audience’s shift

towards the acceptance of the character’s relationship.

Photo | Charlène Hanania

Review: Suicide Squad

Film & Music • The Strand

Wilf Mose | Contributor

Superpowers: Being unexpectedly sassy, having skin issues.

Superpowers: Extremely powerful ability to control fire, being a pacifist (Go figure).

Superpowers: Swordsmanship, being shoved into the plot haphazardly.

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Superpowers: Boomerangs.

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Superpowers: Ability to fight while in heels and booty shorts, being overtly objectified.

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Superpowers: Master marksman, having most of the best lines.

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gloom and doom, without any opportunity for us to enjoy getting to know its characters. Superman had a depressing childhood and watches his second father die in Man of Steel.

Batman vs. Superman features a brutal fight scene during which Batman almost murders Superman in cold blood.

Marvel offers genuine laugh-out-loud moments and Stan Lee’s cameos are the cherry on top. Suicide Squad’s funny moments seemed forced and when Harley Quinn was delivering them, her insanity made me laugh, but mostly out of discomfort.

Suicide Squad does have its redeeming qualities, however, it’s particularly the characters’ relationships. Throughout the movie, the so-called good guys and bad guys formed a kind of symbiotic relationship. Rick Flag and Waller would die if it weren’t for the squad, and ensuring their survival was the only way the squad would get out alive. Grudgingly, the squad obeyed orders. Waller is cold, calculating, and ruthless and throughout the movie, the concept of honour among thieves really took shape as the Squad learned to have each other’s backs. By the end, it was hard not to sympathize with the so-called “bad guys” and the ending was bittersweet. True to her word, Waller reduced each criminal’s sentence by 10 years. Or in other words, “10 years off a triple-life sentence?!” Despite doing good, they all return to jail, each with a small request granted—Harley Quinn now has an espresso machine in her cell and Killer Croc has a television.

In terms of improvements, I would have gotten rid of the supernatural villains. To quote Robert Liefeld: “There was NOT A SINGLE MOMENT in the film that I was not expecting Melissa McCarthy and her GHOSTBUSTERS to arrive and join the fight!” I would have loved to see the Joker play a more central role so we could really get to know his character, and see Jared Leto act. It would have also been interesting to see Batman from the squad’s point of view— given how much I sympathized with them, seeing them kick Batman’s ass would have been a refreshing take on the superhero genre. On a side note, when Bruce Wayne appeared in a post-credits scene, I was genuinely shocked for a split second when in lieu of Christian Bale, I saw Ben Affleck. It’s like SNL after Bill Hader, Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey all left: same identity, but not quite the same. Plus, Ben Affleck’s face looks so damn fat in that half-mask.

I took a Roger Ebert approach to rating Suicide Squad: “Relative, not absolute.” This rating is based on what you’d expect out of a summer blockbuster starring comic book characters. I’m giving it a generous 7/10 because despite its many flaws, Suicide Squad is a fairly enjoyable popcorn flick. If we’re talking about genuine cinematic and artistic quality, I’d give it a 3.5. Now, go rewatch Civil War—the better summer superhero movie.

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reotypically Egyptian headwear-wearing antagonists with badly done CGI, I would rewatch The Mummy Returns.

Suicide Squad felt messy, and it’s mostly due to the characters: they are not believable and it’s a wonder they can co-exist in the same movie. Your bad guys are omnipotent gods that have seemingly unstoppable powers, but are apparently vulnerable to human weaponry. Facing off against them is the Suicide Squad: Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Rick Flag, Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc, El Diablo, Katana, Slipknot.

Unsurprisingly, Boomerang did almost nothing to advance the plot. This is where I feel the movie went flat when compared to other superhero movies. Let’s use Captain America: Civil War as an example. No matter how many characters were thrown in, they all seemed evenly matched and offered an opportunity for engaging conflict. Anyone could have come out on top! Despite her psychic powers, Scarlet Witch could be taken down by brute strength, Vision’s weakness was his sense of good, even the seemingly unstoppable Winter Soldier was taken down eventually. In Suicide Squad, the bad guys were slow and lazy enough to allow the main characters to progress throughout the plot.

The squad shouldn’t have stood a chance, and this didn’t make for the most enjoyable viewing possible, since all I could think was, “Why hasn’t everybody in this movie died yet?”

I think one reason why the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been more successful than the DC Extended Universe is because of the way it treats its characters. Iron Man made Iron Man everybody’s new favourite superhero.

Captain America: The First Avenger made the public to care about Captain America. The MCU turned Ant-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy into Hollywood giants. Dr. Strange looks freakin’ amazing, and I’m more excited about the Black Panther movie than I am for any other upcoming release. Marvel treats their B-list characters with respect! In three movies, what has the DCEU done? It’s turned Lex Luthor into a hyperactive, Bible-bashing clone of Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network and pitted a boomerang-throwing Aussie redneck, along with other B-list characters against a couple of all-powerful villains. Jason Momoa casting as Aquaman only redeems the DCEU slightly.

Another reason why I think the MCU has completely eclipsed the DCEU is how the atmosphere of each movie has been established. Marvel has approached their films seriously, but not too seriously. Ant-Man and The Guardians of the Galaxy have soul but are goofy and fun, and rightfully so. Imagine the alternative; a dark and gritty movie called Ant-Man or a grim brooding film starring Bradley Cooper as a raccoon and Vin Diesel as a tree-person? Marvel offers characters that are actual friends, and with that comes humour and emotional connection. The DCEU has been all

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Suicide Squad is a very weird movie. Here’s something to take in if you haven’t seen it and haven’t been put off by the reviews; the trailers did not spoil much and props to the marketing team behind it, Suicide Squad is NOTHING like you would expect. With that said and done, allow me to spoil the movie.

The first thing to shock me was the character Enchantress. For those of you unfamiliar with her, here’s a rundown; she’s an ancient goddess who inhabits the body of an archaeologist, Dr. June Moone. Dr. Moone can become this omnipotent being just by saying the word “Enchantress”—which makes perfect sense, seeing as that name was given to her arbitrarily as far as the ancient goddess is concerned. Government official Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) decides to control this dangerous goddess to help fight evil and trusts her not to go into goddess-mode and destroy things at will. Waller’s only defence? She possesses Enchantress’ heart. If that doesn’t turn you away from this movie, nothing will at this point. In a bit of clever deception, Enchantress becomes the primary antagonist of Suicide Squad (along with her brother, who is a god), instead of being a squad member, as is suggested by the trailers.

The second thing that shocked viewers, and Jared Leto himself, was how minor of a role the Joker played. The Joker really acts as a side-plot, spending the movie trying to reunite with his girlfriend Harley Quinn, instead of playing a starring role, as the movie’s publicity would have everyone believe. There’s something about Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the character that was menacing and crazy, while still seeming serious and not cartoonish. Leto couldn’t recreate the last Joker’s authentic menace and I feel like that’s mostly down to the writing and atmosphere that director David Ayer tried to create.

On a serious note, I can’t talk about Suicide Squad without briefly addressing the accusations of misogyny, particularly towards Harley Quinn. Her character is seductive and always an object of desire. There’s one particularly unpleasant scene near the beginning where prison guards torture Harley and one takes a selfie with her while she cries in pain.

Throughout the movie, constant attention is also brought to Harley’s exaggerated sexiness, and the squad members are often surprised when she kicks ass without needing any help. Instead of promoting sexualized violence and a weak female character, I prefer to think that the treatment of Harley Quinn is meant to recognize how reprehensible and simple-minded the other characters’ actions are. Anyhow, thinking that way is what helped me enjoy the movie more, and hopefully others see it this way too.

Apparently, the script of Suicide Squad was written in six weeks. I wouldn’t be surprised if the plot was written in six minutes. Who thought that pitting DC villains against a pair of gods would be a good idea? If I wanted to look at ste-

Superpowers: Being peripheral in movie publicity, appearing in the movie for maybe 30 seconds before being killed (Seriously).

Illustration | Lynn Hong

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Stranded • The Strand

Not Infinite Jest :

A book review of Anne of Green Gables Luca Bellisario | Contributor Lucy Maud Montgomery’s most notable literary attempt, Anne of Green Gables, offers a narrative with zero emotional momentum and characters with a shockingly absent pathos. And perhaps most offensively, it is a novel so half-witted it bears absolutely no resemblance to David Foster Wallace’s all-time masterpiece, Infinite Jest.

Infinite Jest sits modestly at around 1,079 pages, while Anne of Green Gables barely breaches 300. How anyone could hope to accomplish anything close to a “work of literature” in 300 pages, I’ll never understand.

From top to bottom, Infinite Jest outclasses Anne of Green Gables in every

way imaginable, beginning with the title.

While David Foster Wallace’s masterpiece is named after a brilliant and subtle nod to the second greatest piece of writing taught in schools today, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Montgomery’s story is simply titled with the name of the protagonist of the novel. Sorry, Lucy, but that obnoxious on-the-nose crap just doesn’t cut it in the big infinite league of jests.

Too short. Too simple. While Montgomery’s novel wallows in its unsophisticated mundanity, a book like Infinite Jest is long and complicated, and therefore better. Ultimately, the greatest flaw of Anne of Green Gables is that the author spends too much time “telling” the sto-

ry, and never gets around to “jesting” the story in any sort of infinite way.

Location, location, location. Another problem with Anne of Green Gables is setting. Taking place on Prince Edward Island, the novel’s completely banal insignificance is a reflection of its location.

Should Montgomery have placed her characters in, let’s say, Infinite Jest’s iconic setting: the greater-Boston-area, she might have come closer to creating something worthy of the distinction of “art.”

While Foster-Wallace’s narrative is driven by a myriad of incredible, complex, tortured, and seethingly brilliant characters, with names like “Michael Pemulis, James Incandenza, and Joelle

Van Dyne,” Montgomery’s “novel” is centred around boring people named “Anne” and “Gilbert.” Fortunately, the book’s two remotely readable moments come on pages 146 and 352, the only time when Montgomery steps outside of her literary comfort zone, and finally gives the readers what we want by using the words “infinite” and “jest.” However, what is instead spelled to this reader is the tragic tale of “too little, too late.”

Overall, this reader would give Montgomery’s work a 3/5 and Sir Foster-Wallace’s work a 5/5. I hate to break it to everyone, but this book is definitely not Infinite Jest.

Buttplug Wente Welcome to college – and the thought police BUTTPLUG Find & Replace | Microsoft Word Tool Freshman orientation week isn’t what it used to be BUTTPLUG These days, it’s not just about learning your way around the campus BUTTPLUG It’s also about learning how to avoid giving unintentional offence BUTTPLUG Not all the answers are obvious BUTTPLUG For example, is it okay to sing along with music that uses the “n” word if you are white? No, it definitely is not! Nor is it okay for anyone to use the term “you guys” (sexist) BUTTPLUG These warnings are included in a sensitivity-training course for freshpeople at Clark University, a Massachusetts liberal arts college BUTTPLUG As The New York Times reports, the course focuses on the land mines of contemporary campus life—the microaggressions, microassaults, microinsults and microinvalidations that have the power to inflict pain and trauma on students, who need trigger warnings and safe spaces to shield them from hurt BUTTPLUG Such training sessions are now routine—even mandatory—at more and more universities BUTTPLUG They’re supposed to foster diversity and inclusion BUTTPLUG Instead, they foster identity politics, grievance, extreme thin-skinned-ness and the stifling of free inquiry BUTTPLUG They also cultivate a view of our society as a dark and violent place, dominated by systemic racism, sexism and homophobia BUTTPLUG (One frequently cited microagression to avoid is: “Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough BUTTPLUG”) Now, in a bold departure from the pack, the University of Chicago has declared that enough’s enough BUTTPLUG In a letter to incoming students, it wrote that its commitment to academic freedom means that it does not support “so-called trigger warnings” or “the creation of intellectual safe spaces where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own BUTTPLUG”

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The letter set off a firestorm BUTTPLUG It turns out that quite a lot of people believe free expression is a bad thing BUTTPLUG They argue it is simply an excuse to spread hateful and obnoxious views—a weapon of the privileged to keep the marginalized down BUTTPLUG “I hope that at the end of the day, Chicago’s cold, Darwinian approach will be an outlier nationally,” wrote Matthew Pratt Guterl, a professor at Brown BUTTPLUG His view is that the world is indeed a dark and violent place, and that universities are obliged to shelter students from it BUTTPLUG Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, is an expert on the campus culture wars BUTTPLUG (His Atlantic article, ‘The coddling of the American mind,’ is a must-read on the subject BUTTPLUG) “In the academy now, if truth conflicts with social justice, truth gets thrown under the bus,” he said in a recent interview with Minding the Campus BUTTPLUG University students have become a constellation of victim groups (the latest being Muslims) BUTTPLUG “And now you have to try to explain social problems without saying anything that casts any blame on any member of a protected group BUTTPLUG And not just moral blame, but causal blame BUTTPLUG None of these groups can have done anything that led to their victimization or marginalization BUTTPLUG” As he has documented, university culture (outside the sciences and technical schools) is increasingly a monoculture, dominated by a class of self-perpetuating ultraprogressives BUTTPLUG Dr. BUTTPLUG Haidt believes today’s students really are far more fragile than they used to be BUTTPLUG He blames the dramatic change in parenting styles BUTTPLUG These kids have been supervised and scheduled all their lives BUTTPLUG They’ve been raised by parents who are fearful and protective

and didn’t give them any unsupervised space to negotiate life on their own and develop some resilience BUTTPLUG The result is skyrocketing rates of anxiety, fragility and psychological weakness

incarceration in the United States is closely correlated with the rate of black crime (it is) BUTTPLUG People who say these hurtful things are, by definition, racist, as well as wrong and dan-

Illustration| Lynn Hong

among university students BUTTPLUG “Millennials come to college with much thinner skins,” he says BUTTPLUG “Until that changes, I think we’re going to keep seeing these demands to never hear anything offensive BUTTPLUG” Something else has changed as well BUTTPLUG By the time they reach university, the kids have already been well and truly steeped in social justice BUTTPLUG They absolutely believe there is a rape crisis (there isn’t) BUTTPLUG They absolutely believe that women make much less than men (not really) BUTTPLUG They do not want to hear that the high rate of black

gerous BUTTPLUG Students know that if they ever said such things themselves, they’d be ostracized by the tribe, so they don’t BUTTPLUG So that’s what you can look forward to at university, you guys BUTTPLUG Groupthink, censorship, intellectual tyranny and continual assurance that the world we live in is a dark and dreadful place BUTTPLUG Have fun! And don’t forget to Skype BUTTPLUG [Editor’s Note: An online version of this piece appeared online BUTTPLUG]

Stranded • The Strand

Dry Frosh deemed a “total success” Luca Bellisario | Contributor Victoria College’s 2016 Dry Frosh was deemed a total success after recent surveys taken across one million Victoria College Frosh revealed that no one had any fun, like, at all.

2%

98%

2%

Cross out the names of his shitty ex-girlfriends Celeste Yim | Stranded Editor

98%

Percentage of students who did not have any fun at all.

Percentage of students who are narcs.

Percentage of students who did not have any fun at all.

Percentage of students who are narcs.

Stranded ’s Heather’s Picks Stranded exclusive: An excerpt of Indigo’s latest adult colouring book Connor Campbell | Contributor

Clues to help you out: •

She says she is SUCH a dork.

•

She loves Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss.

•

She self-identifies as a mom to her cats.

•

She’s passionate about #35mm photography.

•

New Girl is her favourite television show.

•

She god damn loves to go to music festivals.

•

Her favourite city is Paris. Of course it is.

•

The title of her latest Zine is “Wanderlust”.

•

She is VERY caught up on the Kanye/Taylor drama.

•

Her favourite poets are Sylvia Plath and Rupi Kaur.

•

Her Longchamp has a drawing of the Eiffel Tower on it.

•

It’s so brave of her to write about sex in her poetry.

•

Her favourite record? For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver.

•

She doesn’t understand why All Lives Matter is anti-black.

•

Her captions are all by T.S. Eliot because she knows how to read.

•

She thinks saying “I speak French” is an interesting thing to say.

•

She just changed her Tumblr URL from “livinginwhite.tumblr.

com” to “thecolourineverything.tumblr.com” to reflect the change •

she has undergone on the inside.

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Stranded • The Strand

Stranded’s period colour dictionary Kelly De Hoop | Contributor

Scarlet

Mahogany Uh oh! Looks like someone needs to get some iron in them! To get your period colour back to a healthier shade try having steak for 3 meals a day for the next month.

Get chowin!

Currant You’ve been living your best self this month, my love!!! Regular exercise and a for sure balanced mental state have been paying off. If you can hook up with that cutie in English class you’ll be so over the moon, you can expect this healthy shade to be a “re-currant” surprise next month ;)

Crimson You aren’t fooling anyone with this bright colour! A crimson shade is a clear sign of sore tits before, during, and after your period. Try wearing a sports bra next time!

Full-on Brown It’s your first period!!! Or you shit your pants! Email stranded@thestrand.ca if you’re having trouble differentiating!

Scarlet fever indeed! You have been acting like a child (with an infectious bacterial disease) all month, and your period is telling you to change your ways! Try doing that flour sack baby challenge teens in sitcoms do for health class, and you’ll learn how hard actual children are to take care of! Grow up okay?

Ruby Your uterine wall is shedding up a storm, and you probably haven’t showered in six days. This is called having your “period”, and is totally normal.

Green

Brick

Your seasonal depression is kicking in!

Sheryl Sandberg it and spend the week wallowing in bed, so despondent you won’t even go on your laptop or phone.

Chill away, honey!

The stars have aligned for you! Mercury is in retrograde and you will be coming in to money in the near future. Look out world. Also, see a doctor!

Average conversations with new acquaintances Act 1, Scene 1 Joshua Kim | Film & Music Editor FADE IN: INT. NON-DISCRIPT, WHITE-DOMINATED SOCIAL CIRCLE - DAY NEW ACQUAINTANCE Where are you from?

JOSHUA braces himself for the familiar conversation; JOSHUA is from British Columbia.

NEW ACQUAINTANCE No, no, where are you ACTUALLY from?

JOSHUA explains that he was born in Canada, but his parents are from Korea.

NEW ACQUAINTANCE Oh, you’re Korean?! Wow, I would’ve never guessed!!

Usually I’m really good at guessing what kind of “Asian” Asians are.

NEW ACQUAINTANCE has been alright so far, but this is a bit troublesome.

NEW ACQUAINTANCE So like… What do you think of North Korea? Wait, you’re from the “South” right?”

JOSHUA give an answer that’s curt but appropriate, letting NEW ACQUAINTANCE know that no, we are not all North Koreans.

NEW ACQUAINTANCE Oh cool, cool… Dude, you’re so lucky, you must have Korean BBQ ALL THE TIME. Man, it’s sooo good!!

NEW ACQUAINTANCE pauses, thoughtfully.

NEW ACQUAINTANCE I don’t know about Kimchi, though…

JOSHUA kindly laughs it off, no one is perfect.

JOSHUA agrees of course, but lets NEW ACQUAINTANCE know that Korean cuisine has much more to offer than just sizzling meat on a hot pan.

NEW ACQUAINTANCE Totally thought you were Chinese! Haha!

JOSHUA waits for inquiries about dog meat to come up, but until then he smiles.

Nevermind! This guy sucks. Nervous laughter from

BLACK OUT.

Check out the answer key from last week’s crossword!

Celeste Yim | Stranded Editor

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JOSHUA and NEW ACQUAINTANCE dissolves into awkward eye contact.