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STAFF HEADS
Eric Seitz
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Asha McClendon
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Courtney Byrnes
Arts Editor
Lynn Nichols
Culture Editor
Samra Karamustafic
Beauty Editor
Jillian VanDyke
Asst. Art Director
Claudia Ugbana Social Editor
Megann Rosecrans Online Content Editor
WRITERS
Megan Baranuk Samra Karamustafic Eric Seitz Lynn Nichols Lauren Koleszar Megan Mullaly Abigail Preiszig Claudia Ugbana
Max Torres Multimedia Manager
JUNIOR DESIGNERS
Devin Benko Stefany Belasic Hannah Mosley Megan Mullaly Jillian VanDyke Emily Williams Emma Splete
POETS
Anabel Bach Erika Gifford
ARTISTS & PHOTOGRAPHERS
Max Torres
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WEIRD AND WONDERFUL
WandaVision
WRITTEN BY
Eric Sietz
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
Asha McClendon
The low-down on WandaVision and its implications on the MCU’s brave new world.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Aretro-style sitcom featuring an unequivocally dead Avenger and his grieving girlfriend was hardly the most anticipated series when Marvel Studios announced its slew of titles coming to Disney+. For many, it was not even not the least anticipated series (I said what I said). Furthermore, the show’s slowburn rollout that had its first few episodes basking in their sitcom-iness was met with mixed reviews.
However, WandaVision’s arrival has made a cultural splash, trending on social media platforms like TikTok and Twitter and sweeping the world as Marvel Studios’ first offering since July 2019. More than halfway through its freshman season, WandaVision has proven that good things do in fact come to those who wait.
When episode four “We Interrupt This Program” broke from the show’s sitcom-with-a-dark-underbelly format to explore the world outside of the sitcom, the audience promptly went — and I’m about to use a technical term here — absolutely bonkers. WandaVision has struck the perfect balance between the reality-bent Westview and the characters outside trying to figure their way in, and the show’s newfound alternating format displayed that this wasn’t the complete divergence from the MCU’s formula that audiences thought it was.
WandaVision’s premise is cute — two Avengers move to a suburban town and try to blend in, despite their powers and unique characteristics. However, the premise is not what makes Marvel Studios’ first foray into television so stellar. If WandaVision were a cake, its sitcom premise would be the cake stand — a sturdy yet beautiful stand; one that will hold up the beautiful cake that sits on top of it; it’s not what you came for, but it sure does help make the experience a great one. After all, a cake would just be a pile of mush if it didn’t have a stand hoisting it up. Watching those first three episodes and all their sitcom-y glory is what gave episode four its oomph. Showing Monica get un-blipped in the hospital and then cutting to the Marvel Studios intro would have been less awe-inspiring if the show had already explained the goings-on of life outside Westview. However, audiences go in blind, entering episode four with only knowledge of life inside Wanda’s make-believe town.
Episode four even nods to the silliness of the sitcom with meta references from adorably relatable characters Darcy and Agent Woo. Episode four’s genius is rooted in its references to the bizzaro-coaster that the first three episodes just forced audiences to endure. Agent Woo’s line sums it up perfectly: “The universe created a sitcom about two Avengers?” Yes, Jimmy. It did — the Marvel Cinematic Universe
created a sitcom about two Avengers. Darcy’s growing affection for the sitcom midway through the episode mirrors the audience’s own growing affection — though we were skeptical at first, wondering when the classic MCU magic would come into play, we’ve grown to love its cheesy sitcom format. For being a series that completely ignores much of the world around it, WandaVision is the MCU’s most fourthwall-breaking, meta-referencing, homage-paying work that the studio has put out.
WandaVision is many things. One of its major attributes is that it’s a love letter to various eras of sitcom television. Episodes one and two wowed audiences with their attention to detail in creating sitcom episodes of the 50’s and 60’s that felt true to their respective eras.
The series’ music alone is unprecedented magic — Frozen songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez wrote the theme songs for every decade-themed episode so far. The result of mashing together of the MCU with sitcom television results in genius songwriting, complete with nods to the events of the MCU and nods to the state of the show’s plot at the time. The songs themselves are stellar works as well, complete with true-to-era instrumentation and vocals.
Further, the show progresses in its production technology as the decades advance — in episode one, Wanda uses her magic to put rings on both
hers and Vision’s hands, but the technology of the 1950’s was nowhere near what we see Wanda’s magic portrayed as now, so the scene features two clips bumped up against each other, flashing from a shot of their ringless hands to a shot of their hands with rings on them. The genuineness of that moment is hit home with the very visible fact that their hands are in slightly different spots when they have the rings on them.
The MCU is not afraid of altering the status quo (see Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers Infinity War), but its series like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Daredevil notoriously have little to no bearing on the heavy-hitting films that the MCU is known for. WandaVision proves that this is no longer the case: aAfter months of fans speculating whether the X-Men would arrive in the MCU, WandaVision shattered the wall that separated the two universes with a single cliffhanger scene at the end of episode five. This simple crossover cameo will have ripple-effects throughout the upcoming films from the studios. Further, WandaVision is the first in what is being called a “loose trilogy” story that also includes Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (in which Wanda will also appear) and the untitled third Spider-Man film.
Perhaps the show’s greatest feat, though, comes in its ability to juggle a serious, MCU-level plot and a sitcom plot at once, making them intertwine with one another as they go along. This is best evidenced in episode five: As Wanda’s fake world seems to be crumbling around her, so too does the actual plot of the sitcom episode. The storyline of the twins convincing Wanda and Vision to let them adopt a dog feels truncated and clumsy, and this is on purpose — as Vision grows suspicious of Wanda and as Agnes’s strange nature comes to the surface, the doomed dog storyline reflects Wanda’s descent into turmoil that she reaches at the end of the episode. Vision’s mistrust in her as well as her own guilt over her (presumed) misdoings not only causes poor Sparky to die, but also makes her effort to teach her boys about the permanence of death to fall flat — if Wanda could justify bringing Vision back to life in an attempt to run from her grief, what makes her qualified to tell her boys that running from their grief is wrong?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a master-class of raising thought-provoking questions on morality, duty, grief, and survival. WandaVision is simply the latest in a long line of stellar storytelling journeys. I didn’t need more of an excuse to continue watching what Marvel has in store, but if you are looking for a reason, let WandaVision be it. It’s got, like, 80 reasons. In each episode.
THE BECHDEL
WALLACE TESTIN 2021
WRITTEN BY
Lynn Nichols Examining the history and nuances of an iconic pop culture metric
SiUr Modern film criticism often involves analysis of diversity and representation in the cast and plot. In these progressive discussions, most of us have heard of the Bechdel-Wallace test, more commonly known as the Bechdel test. The Bechdel-Wallace test is the most well-known method of evaluating the way women are depicted in a film. As we continue to use it as the standard for feminist analysis, we should take the time to revisit the origins and impact of the Bechdel-Wallace test from the 1980s to the present.
The test is widely credited to Alison Bechdel, the cartoonist known for her graphic novel “Fun Home.” The idea behind the test was described in Bechdel’s famous comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For,” in print from 1983–2008. This conversation that would become the Bechdel test was first printed in an early installment from 1985 titled “The Rule.” Two characters walk through a movie theater and discuss their taste in film. One explains that she will only watch a movie if its script can fulfill “three basic requirements. One, it has to have at least two women in it who, two, talk to each other about, three, something besides a man.” When her friend observes that that sounds “pretty strict,” the first woman agrees, and remarks half-jokingly that she hasn’t been able to watch a movie since “Alien” (released 1979).
As feminists continued to discuss the strip through the years, many added the stipulation to rule number two that the two female characters must also have names. This version is reflected in the criteria for bechdeltest.com, an active database where users grade films according to the three requirements. As a quick glance at the recent pass/fail lists will show, surprisingly many contemporary films fall short of those standards more than thirty years later. According to the analysis and reviews at bechdeltest.com and mediaversityreviews.com, one third of the Best Picture nominees from the 2020 Academy Awards outright failed the test, while another third passed on narrow technicalities. Only “Jojo Rabbit,” “Little Women” and winner “Parasite” definitively passed with complex conversations between plot-significant, clearly named female characters.
The Bechdel test has taken on a life of its own in pop culture, which has led to some distance from Alison Bechdel’s original intentions. In a 2015 interview with NPR, she discussed the inspiration for “The Rule” and credited the idea to her friend Liz Wallace. She continued that she would be “very happy” if the film fans and critics who use her test would call it the Bechdel-Wallace test instead. As Megan Garber wrote for The Atlantic, a test meant to highlight the importance of conversations between women should “recognize that dialogue” between Bechdel and Wallace in its name.
When we apply the Bechdel-Wallace test in film analysis, we must also keep in mind what exactly it is measuring. Some viewers and critics celebrate films that pass the test by using phrases like “passes the Bechdel test with flying colors,” essentially praising films as feminist because they meet the three requirements, but that misses the original point. The characters in “The Rule” are not discussing the films that they enjoy, nor the films that they find meaningful, but rather the films that are worth seeing in the first place. Considering its original context within a lesbian-centered comic strip, “The Rule” speaks to the alienation that women who love women experience when they don’t see any developed relationships between women in entertainment media. What
Bechdel conveys in the strip is that these standards ought to be the bare minimum, but so many films can’t even go that far.
In recent years, many critics have elaborated on the dangers of assuming that the Bechdel-Wallace test indicates whether a film is feminist. Films may pass the test for superficial reasons without actually centering women in the story. A conversation between friends about what to eat for dinner is enough to pass the Bechdel-Wallace test. But if later in the film, one of these female characters dies to advance the male lead’s story arc, the other one marries the lead, and there are no other named women with speaking roles, we should still question whether it is an inclusive, feminist film. Furthermore, as Anna Waletzko points out in an article for HuffPost, a film can depict a woman’s experiences and development in rich detail but still fail the test: if there are only two characters in the entire film, for example, and the other is a man. Used on its own, the Bechdel-Wallace test does not account for intersectionality either. A film could pass the test and center women in the plot, but still fail to represent women from diverse racial, cultural and class backgrounds.
Recently, the Bechdel-Wallace test has inspired discourse about other metrics to evaluate the role of gender in film. In 2017, FiveThirtyEight compiled a list of alternative tests created by and named for women in the film industry. One by director and producer Kate Rees Davies requires simply that the film production team have two women in every department. Meanwhile, director Lena Waithe’s test asks whether the film depicts a Black female character in both a position of power and a healthy relationship. In the test by screenwriter Noga Landau, a film fails if a central female character dies, becomes pregnant or causes a problem in the story arc of a male lead. Finally, director Rachel Feldman proposes a scoring system in which a film earns points for meeting criteria such as a female director, or a crew made up of at least 50 percent women. Of the top 50 releases from 2016, no one film could pass all 13 applied tests.
When we consider all of the possible tests and scores, it becomes clear that no one test can measure a definitive best way to include women in film. That is how we should approach the original from “The Rule,” too. The ideas of Alison Bechdel and Liz Wallace cannot singlehandedly end all of the misogyny and inequity in the film industry. But their work is still meaningful because it introduces a framework for thinking critically about representation and inclusion. “The Rule” is valuable commentary on outdated ideas about a woman’s place in the narrative. The Bechdel-Wallace test challenges us to consider our media from every angle and ask ourselves: who is included in the conversation?
RELEASES THAT PASS THE BECHDELWALLACE TEST:
Bill & Ted Face the Music
• Emma.
• The Half of It
• Happiest Season
• The High Note • Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
• The Old Guard
THE HISTORY OF WOMEN’S MONTH
WRITTEN BY
Claudia Ugbana
A look into the history of why women are celebrated through the month of March
Women’s History Month is a celebration of women everywhere, along with their achievements and contributions to society. This month also serves as a reminder of the women who fought for several years and gained the rights for women to vote and hold positions in office. Most importantly, Women’s History Month serves as a symbol of how women have made — and continue to make — paramount additions all around the world.
The presidential proclamation of Women’s History Month was a long and courageous battle which took many years to achieve, and has evolved over time. What began as a single day to acknowledge women across the world, was later turned into a week long celebration, before the month of March was officially dedicated to womankind.
Women’s history celebrations began as a local festivity in Santa Rosa, California, over four decades
Women’s History Month is a celebration of women - their achievements - contributions to society.
ago. In 1978, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women executed a “Women’s History Week” celebration, to line up with International Women’s Day: one day in the year dedicated to the celebration of all kinds of women. The local women, men and children enthusiastically participated in special contests and classroom presentations that drew in hundreds of entries. However, women celebrating the week in various parts of the country was simply not enough, so the women lobbied law officials to make this proclamation official.
In 1980, a combination of women’s groups and historians lobbied for national recognition. They were successfully granted approval when President Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation, and thus, Women’s History Week was created. As the celebration spread across the nation, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Oregon and Alaska were just a few of the states that developed and distributed a curriculum that encompassed the history of women. As the years passed, many states across the nation adopted National Women’s History Week on different dates, until 1986. A total of 14 U.S. states had adopted the national holiday
by that year, causing a state-by-state action to lobby Congress into declaring the month of March National Women’s History Month by 1987.
The U.S. was not the only country that fought for a change in the world, however. In 1908, the famous Women’s Day March in New York City piqued the interests of a German socialist in Europe named Clara Zetkin. She presented the idea at a women’s conference, gaining the approval of 100 women who were in attendance. From that conference, International Women’s Day was then acknowledged by 1911 in Germany, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland.
In several countries all across the world, the movement spread and took life in many different ways, from thousands of women gathering to march in New York City, to a group of many different women from 17 different countries in Europe, to the presidential proclamation of a month-long celebration. Women’s History Month has become a worldwide event to honor the women who started it all; however, the celebration has since evolved.
In today’s modern world, Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day are celebrated in varying ways. The National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA) has declared an annual theme for the month, dating back to the very beginning of its declaration. This year’s theme, an ode to the recent election and a continuation from 2020’s theme, is Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced.
Although this theme accurately describes the past year, it remains timely, as we can look back at the many female activists who refused to be silenced over the years. We can look at examples such as Alice Paul, who led the women’s suffrage movement, Mary McLeod Bethune, who founded the National Council of Negro Women and paved the way for Black women, and most recently, Stacey Abrams, who helped register at least 800,000 new voters in the state of Georgia for the 2020 presidential election.
The theme has varied over the many years and has been created by other organizations dedicated to uplifting and celebrating women. The United Nations (UN) has sponsored the annual holiday, observed in several countries all around the world since 1975. When adopting the responsibility of the observance of International Women’s Day, the UN cites its reasons as, “a move to recognize the fact that securing peace and social progress and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms require the active participation, equality and development of women; and to acknowledge the contribution of women to the strengthening of international peace and security.”
OTHER IMPORTANT MILESTONES FOR WOMEN DECLARED IN THE MONTH OF MARCH:
MARCH 1, 1972
The U.S. Senate passed Title IX, a law which prohibits sex discrimination in all federally funded education programs.
MARCH 2, 1903
The Martha Washington Hotel became the first women-only hotel to be opened in New York City.
MARCH 3, 1913
The first women’s suffrage parade took place in Washington, D.C.
MARCH 8, 2014
An organization established to highlight the contributions made by Catholic women into society was created. Thus, National Catholic Sisters Week was created.
MARCH 12, 1912
The first Girl Scouts meeting was held in Savannah, Georgia.
MARCH 17, 1910
Camp Fire Girls, the very first interracial, non-sectarian American organization for girls was established.
MARCH 22, 1972
The Equal Rights Amendment was also passed by the senate, a constitutional amendment guaranteeing rights regardless of a person’s sex.
MARCH 31, 1888
The National Council of Women of the U.S. was officially formed.
MARCH 1917
A political group dedicated to women’s suffrage named The National Woman’s Party was officially formed.
FRIDGE CLEVELAND
INTERVIEW WITH ALEX QUANDT
WRITTEN BY
Abigail Preiszig
PHOTOS BY
Max Torres Lifelong Clevelander Alex Quandt has fought to eliminate food-waste increases due to COVID-19 by starting Community Fridge Cleveland, a volunteer-based refrigerator and dry pantry setup that provides accessible healthy food to members of the community for free.
Community Fridge Cleveland (CFC) is a community refrigerator that offers free food to anyone, regardless of proof of aid or income level. The local project was started by Alex Quandt, who lives on the east side of Cleveland with her husband and one-and-a half-yearold son. After having her son, Quandt began working from home, and she began the CFC project in July 2020. This isn’t Quandt’s first endeavor as an active member of her community — before starting CFC, she worked as an event planner and did crafts at a senior living community. As she set her heart on starting a community refrigerator, she began looking for a physical fridge, an accessible public location, food and monetary donations and enthusiastic volunteers. By November, the first refrigerator had found its home at The Root Café in Lakewood!
ABIGAIL PREISZIG: What inspired you to start Community Fridge Cle (CFC)?
ALEX QUANDT: I had seen some community fridges on Instagram that had been met with really great success in their city and figured, why not here? We have such a vibrant and tight-knit community, and I thought that we could really make a difference here.
AP: What is the goal of CFC?
AQ: I believe that everyone should have access to free, healthy food. The idea of food scarcity is a myth-- there’s plenty of food that gets thrown out for one reason or another all of the time. The goal is to create a sustainable food-sharing program that reduces food waste in our area. We are not the haves giving to the have-nots, we all eat this food!
AP: What has surprised you most since starting CFC?
AQ: This community grew so fast! Since I’m a working mom, this wouldn’t be possible without a network of volunteers and community members willing to help out. So many people were on board right away. It still amazes me how many wonderful people are excited to be a part of this project. It’s so energizing!
AP: What has been the most challenging part of starting and maintaining CFC? hoped. I think a lot of people are so used to the idea of charity that mutual aid can seem unrealistic or even intimidating. Julie, the owner of The Root Café, was a lifesaver. I’d been having meetings for months before we were put in touch, and right off the bat, her attitude was, “Let’s get started.” She and her staff have been so generous and have given us the ideal environment for the project.
AP: What do you hope CFC can contribute to our community?
AQ: I hope that we can provide a safe space for our neighbors to be able to connect with one another. The platform of the Fridge has allowed me to connect a lot of people with one another to share more than just food — household goods, services, furniture, fundraising, etc. This community is super powerful.
AP: What do you desire for the future of CFC?
AQ: Expansion! I’d love to have Fridges in more neighborhoods around Cleveland. I have two donated refrigerators in my garage as we speak, just waiting for hosts. I have people DMing me all of the time that their neighborhood could benefit from this project. I want this loving community to get bigger and better in 2021.
AP: Who manages CFC?
AQ: It’s just me on the administration end. I have an invaluable group of volunteers who checks the Fridge to sanitize it and make sure that things are looking good and are within date. I do the big shopping hauls with money that we get through Venmo, and the rest of the food comes from direct donations within the community.
AP: What are the criteria to host a Fridge?
AQ: All that’s really needed is an accessible space and electricity! The addition of another refrigerator to an electricity bill results in an increase of under $20 per month. Fridges should be in places that allow foot traffic and are accessible by public transit.
AP: Who can take from the Fridge?
AQ: Anyone at all. We don’t check documentation or income, which is what makes mutual aid so much
