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Thursday, November 5, 2015
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Critic discusses Student leader: Justin Killian Junior fights for represention of justice in Valley women in media By Anthony Rentsch
Anita Sarkeesian visits UMass Wed. By colBy seARs Collegian Staff
Anita Sarkeesian, pop culture media critic and creator of the video web series Feminist Frequency, is no stranger to resistance. She spoke about just that at the University of Massachusetts on Wednesday, embracing the theme of the year-long “Social Science Matters: Perspectives on Resistance” lecture series presented by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Recently named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, Sarkeesian is without doubt a controversial figure. She was targeted in 2014 by the male-dominated video game culture associated with the hashtag #GamerGate, most specifically for her “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” web series. She received a surplus of death and rape threats and was even forced to cancel a Utah State University speech in October 2014 due to threats of a mass shooting. In her “I’ll Make a Man Out of You: Redefining Strong Female Characters” talk at UMass, Sarkeesian discussed the tropes and stereotypes associated with women across all media types, particularly how female characters are presented in video games, movies and television. Although there has been an increase in female television and movie characters in recent years, Sarkeesian
asks whether or not these roles have actually helped the representation of women or are simply imitating masculine qualities in a sexualized female body. “Media can inspire greatness and challenge the status quo, or sadly more often it can work to reinforce and normalize systems of power and privilege,” she said. This philosophy is what encouraged her to start Feminist Frequency in 2009 as an effort to make feminism and the issues of privilege and oppression more accessible. She said her goal in doing so was to use the lens of pop culture to make these concepts more relatable. Sarkeesian made it clear that all the mass media discussed in the talk has been produced for a society that has “existed within the system of patriarchy for decades”, which can produce harmful gender stereotypes that some may not even realize exist in the media they consume. Traits like being strong, confident, passive, timid or nurturing, for example, are qualities that all humans are capable of possessing. She said these characteristics, however, are often confined to a gender binary in which some are seen as purely masculine and others associated only with femininity. She believes these qualities should be regarded as human traits rather than traits classified by gender. Part of Sarkeesian’s talk focused on her case studies of female characters who see
SARKEESIAN on page 2
Collegian Staff
Justin Killian is a junior double major in women, gender, sexuality studies and social thought and political economy at the University of Massachusetts. She has been active in organizing for the transgender community not only at UMass, but in the Pioneer Valley area. Currently, she is working with Gender Liberation UMass to host a week of events focused on the rights and access that transgender and non-gender conforming people have on campus.
ROBERT RIGO/COLLEGIAN
Talk to me a little bit about Justin Killian is actively involved with Gender Liberation UMass’ week of events, which is currently ongoing. your involvement with transgender rights on al and very real. Healthcare to Smith. I wasn’t really ple of months later I came campus. is a necessity in our com- into the idea, I didn’t really across a post on Tumblr I don’t like to frame it as munity, and the fact that want to apply to a women’s by (Smith Q&A) about the rights; I like to frame it as it is not available on cam- college, I didn’t think that work they were doing and justice, because that’s what pus – you have to travel would really be a space I I instantly remembered my it is. It’s justice for people to Northampton, which is found useful or important – phone call and thought, who have been unjustly about a couple months to six but I did. I called their offic- “Oh, how wonderful; peoserved for the longest time. months wait for an appoint- es and asked how someone ple are aware of this and Last year I did work ment; if not you have to in my particular situation are trying to do something with Smith College – get- travel to Springfield which would go about applying. about it.” I commented that ting trans women admitted; if you don’t have a car, is (a The secretary was very nice I really appreciated it and we got that last spring, they long time) – is not accept- and she told me very kindly that it was really refreshing changed the policy. So they able. about all the medical profes- that there were people who do now accept trans women. Simple things that (cis- sionals I would need to get realized this was going on The cultural attitude of gender people) don’t have to in contact with and that I and were trying to change Smith is another question think about every day, like would need letters from my it. One of the leaders of entirely, but we have it in being able to use the bath- gender therapist to change Q&A got in contact with writing now, which is some- room every day and do it in markers and navigate all me shortly thereafter and thing. I think that was kind peace, without stimulating of these bureaucratic pro- asked me to write a stateof my first dip into trans violence and anxiety. Our cesses. ment for a rally that was activism – that was real life community is one that is Ultimately, (these pro- coming up soon. And we organizing. Ever since then overwhelmingly ill due to cesses) were not required kept in contact on and off it has just made sense. It the stigma that we are expe- because Smith is a LEEP for the next year, and then is about reclaiming space, riencing every single day. funded institution. They I ended up going to UMass taking up space in a society don’t have to follow any which is right next door and How did you get brought that allows you none. And rules in terms of state laws I thought, “Oh, how perfect. into the Smith campaign and saying I belong, I am deservor federal laws as it pertains If I am here I might as well what ended up being your ing of space, deserving of to gender. It’s why they are help work with this.” role there? resources, deserving of a women’s college, and it’s I got in contact with the people’s time, deserving of I got involved with why they exist. So this was leader I had been keeping people’s love. I really think Smith by pure serendipity. purely self-policed. in touch with and I started that’s what all these things Honestly, it’s the only way When I heard all of this I going to meetings. I kind of really say. I know how to describe it. I was very taken aback. I kind served as the outreach coorBut the things we are was pushed by an academic of suspected this was going fighting for are very materi- friend in high school to apply to happen going in. A cou- see KILLIAN on page 2
Once in peril, Amherst Cinema solidifies spot in community Local theater prepares to celebrate anniversary By IsAAc BuRke Collegian Correspondent As Amherst Cinema prepares to celebrate its 10-year anniversary, executive director Carol Johnson says she is proud of the independent cinema’s contribution to the community. At one point though, the storied theater’s future was in jeopardy. The cinema will host festivities on its terrace Wednesday, Nov. 11, to kick off a year of programming that will hark back to the cinema’s roots. In remembrance of the cinema’s first screening in 2006, they will show the movie “The Queen,” have tea and cakes, and a double of Queen Elizabeth II will be present to entertain guests. There will also be a juggler and other family friendly activities, according to Johnson, which will culminate in speeches from community members about the cinema’s first 10 years. Following “The Queen,” the cinema will play one film each month picked from audience favorites, many of which will be accompanied by the director or another guest speaker. In December, for
example, director Debra Granik will come to speak at a screening of “Winter’s Bone,” her popular 2010 independent film starring Jennifer Lawrence. Amherst Cinema was not always so festive, however; under its previous owners, the building was very nearly foreclosed upon in 1999 and it was in such poor shape that it had been closed periodically for health and safety code violations. It was only through the work of what Johnson called “a group of visionary” local citizens that the owners were convinced to sell the building, avoiding a foreclosure auction. The group formed a board of directors and established a nonprofit, with the intention of rebuilding the cinema as a community theater dedicated to the arts. For the next seven years, the board appealed to members of the community, government and the universities in the area to try to raise the $3 million that they would need to rebuild. In 2004, Johnson was named the president of the board, and she secured a number of large grants that allowed the cinema to break ground in May 2006. The cinema opened in November 2006
and its loans were paid off shortly thereafter. Since then, the cinema has shown 200 films a year in 20 languages, sold over one million tickets and popped over 35 tons of popcorn, according to its brochure. According to Johnson though, the greatest triumphs for the cinema were overcoming the “Great Recession” and becoming a beacon for independent cinema. She said patrons often tell her that they come for the diversity of the films they offer. “We find things that are a little off the beaten path,” she said of their repertoire. “They weren’t made to make money, they were made because the filmmakers had something to say.” Although Amherst Cinema is small, she says, its reach and notoriety are much larger. “It’s a big city cinema in a small town,” she said. The cinema has also been a place for community engagement in the arts; for the past five years, it has held an “arts and literacy” program for third graders in the area, which has seen over 6,000 kids to date. Its place in the community has been solidified, though, by the over 4,500 members the cinema
SHANNON BRODERICK/COLLEGIAN
Amherst Cinema will unveil a year’s worth of programming aimed at celebrating its history. has attracted from all over the Pioneer Valley. Many of them are from within Amherst itself, but some come from as far afield as Connecticut and New Hampshire. Jonathan and Susan von Ranson, who live about a half hour away in Wendell, say that they come to the cinema because they love the range of movies that they show. Although they are not mem-
bers, Jonathan said that having a local cinema gives him and his wife a sense of community, and they often go to the movies with friends. “I love it,” said von Ranson. “It creates the culture of cinematic art.” Isaac Burke can be reached at iburke@umass.edu.