The Tufts Daily - Thursday September 16, 2021

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VOLUME LXXXI, ISSUE 5

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Thursday, September 16, 2021

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Lungo-Koehn and Falco to face off in Medford mayoral election, Mbah to take on Ballantyne in Somerville

by Alexander Thompson

wing challenger advanced into the general election.

Somerville’s Ward 7 city council seat, which includes much of the Somerville half of Tufts’ campus, also saw an intensely competitive race with Judy Pineda Neufeld (A’05), a consultant

Assistant News Editor

Somerville Two Somerville city councilors look set to face off in the November’s general election for mayor to replace longtime Mayor Joe Curtatone after an extremely close preliminary election that saw first and third place separated by only 415 votes.

At-large City Councilor Will Mbah led the field with 4,498 votes, 30.07%, followed by Ward 7 City Councilor Katjana Ballantyne with 4,162 votes, 27.82%, according to preliminary results released by the city’s elections department.

Ballantyne edged out former City Auditor and Cambridge Health Alliance executive Mary Cassesso by just 79 votes, less than one percentage point.

William Tauro, the publisher of the Somerville News Weekly, picked up 2,215 votes, 14.81%.

Only the top two candidates, Mbah and Ballantyne, both Democrats, will advance to the general election on Nov. 2.

Slightly more than 15,000 people voted in the preliminary election, nearly three times the number of voters who turned out in 2019 when Curtatone and a left-

see SOMERVILLE, page 2

ALEXANDER THOMPSON, TUFTS DAILY

Incumbent Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn leads all candidates in the Medford mayoral preliminary election.

Medford Incumbent Breanna Lungo-Koehn and City Councilor John Falco came out on top of Tuesday’s three-way preALEXANDER THOMPSON, TUFTS DAILY liminary election and will advance to City Councilor Will Mbah leads all candidates November’s general election for the in the Somerville mayoral preliminary election.

Medford mayorship.

Lungo-Koehn netted 3,968 votes, 47.3%, to Falco’s 2,896 votes, 34.5%, according to unofficial results from the city clerk’s office. John Petrella, a retail consultant, received 1,431 votes, 17.1%, and was eliminated.

“I am grateful for the strong vote of confidence from the people of Medford in today’s preliminary election,” LungoKoehn said in a statement Tuesday night. “In every corner of the City, people from all different backgrounds responded to our positive message of progress and possibilities for our entire community.”

Falco said that the results reflected the city’s desire for change in a tweet after the results were announced.

“I can’t wait to continue to share my vision for a better Medford with you as we make our way towards the election in November,” he said.

Almost the entirety of Lungo-Koehn’s tenure has been dominated by the city’s response to the pandemic after she narrowly beat the previous mayor, Stephanie Muccini Burke, in 2019.

The incumbent has touted that response in her election campaign, focusing on the support her administration gave to small businesses. see MEDFORD, page 2

Social media app Fuzemee gains over 350 student ambassadors at Tufts, raises $800,000 in seed round

by Flora Meng News Editor

Fuzemee, the social media app created

by Tufts acceptant Christopher Tsetsekos and beta-tested in March 2021, has raised over $800,000 in seed round investments, and recruited over 350 Tufts students as ambassadors for the platform.

According to Tsetsekos, Fuzemee allows students to meet new friends, find compatible roommates and discover events around campus. Tsetsekos was originally accepted to the Class of 2024, but has now opted to take a second gap year to pursue Fuzemee’s development.

In detailing his inspiration for the app, Tsetsekos described the lack of a centralized communication platform that caters to college students and how Fuzemee can bridge that gap.

“It’s just mind boggling how some leaders still use email lists or post the same message in multiple Facebook groups,” Tsetsekos said. “On Fuzemee, it’s a lot more efficient. If a student wants to just select one class year’s [events], they can do so right on Fuzemee rather than having to enter a whole new different page on Facebook.”

Currently, Fuzemee also has an extended ambassador network that works to spread its reach across college campuses nationwide, including over 350 Tufts stu-

MICHELLE LI / THE TUFTS DAILY

A student scrolls through Fuzemee. dents and 5,500 nationwide, according to Tsetsekos.

Matt Lane, a Tufts ambassador for Fuzemee, discussed his role in working with the platform.

“Now that I’m in my fourth year here, I know a lot of people that run clubs or are presidents of fraternities and sororities, and so I’m able to be a main point of contact between the social life on campus and the people that work at Fuzemee,” Lane, a senior, said.

Lane described how Tufts students have responded to the app’s launch and features.

“I think a lot of kids are really excited

about it,” Lane said. “I think Facebook is what a lot of [student organizations] use or they use email chains, and the feedback I’ve gotten is not a lot of people use Facebook … so I think Fuzemee is a really strong solution to that issue and will hopefully help clubs with tasks, expand their outreach and streamline their communication.”

Alexa Amorosino, another Fuzemee ambassador, shared how the app had a positive effect on her class as they were trying to make social connections during the pandemic-limited year. “[Last year], it was so hard to meet

people … and we had really limited stuff that we could do,” Amorosino, a sophomore, said. “We were always talking about how there should be an app on college campuses to plan events that have invites to public and private events. And then Fuzemee literally is that and we were like yes, finally this app is here, we want to be a part of this.”

Madeline Delaney, another campus ambassador, discussed some of the next steps that the team is taking to help promote Fuzemee across campus.

SPORTS / back

FEATURES / page 3

OPINION / page 7

It’s great to be #1: men’s soccer knocks off Williams, Wesleyan

New Ex College professor Jo Michael Rezes talks camp

Texas abortion ban means a scary new reality for Texan women

see APP, page 2 NEWS

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FEATURES

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ARTS & POP CULTURE

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FUN & GAMES

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OPINION

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SPORTS

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, September 16, 2021

THE TUFTS DAILY Madeleine Aitken Editor in Chief

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SOMERVILLE

continued from page 1 for nonprofits, leading Becca Miller, who works for a food policy nonprofit, 934 votes to 902 votes, or 37.2% to 35.9%.

Alex Anderson, a healthcare researcher, was eliminated from the race after receiving 354 votes, 14.1%.

This is the first local Somerville election in 26 years in which Curtatone’s name did not appear on the ballot.

The mayor was first elected to the city council, then called the Board of Aldermen, in 1995, before being elected mayor in 2003.

Mbah, who appeared to be in position to replace Curtatone on Tuesday, has positioned himself as the furthest left in a deep-blue city that gave over 85% of its votes to Joe Biden.

Mbah is touting endorsements from the Sunrise Movement, Boston Democratic Socialists of America and Our Revolution

APP

continued from page 1 “[Tsetsekos] and the other Fuzemee guys are coming in a week or so to campus, and I think their physical presence will help bring …a lot of attention to the app once they’re physically here to talk and meet with people,” Delaney, a sophomore, said.

Tsetsekos elaborated on Fuzemee’s present and future plans for ambassadors as well as its current reach at Tufts.

“We’re hoping to incentivize our ambassadors in the future with paid compensation to refer the app to their friends,” Tsetsekos said. “As of now, all they do is promote the app to their social media channels. Since yesterday, in about 12 hours of launching [the app] at Tufts, we

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Somerville, a Bernie Sandersaffiliated political group.

Mbah has pledged to up the percentage of affordable housing units developers are required to include in development projects, cut the police budget and implement a mandatory recycling and composting program.

Mbah immigrated to the United States from Cameroon in 2011 and would be the first Black person to lead the city. He was elected to the city council in 2017.

Mbah thanked his supporters early Wednesday morning and said he would continue to share his vision for the city in the lead up to the general election.

“My heart is full Somerville,” Mbah wrote in a tweet. “Thank you to everyone who put their time and energy into making this result possible.”

Ballantyne was elected to the city council in 2013 and has since served two terms as the body’s president.

Ballantyne, who immigrated to Somerville with adoptive parents from Greece as a young person, has tried to position herself as the climate candidate, frequently highlighting her work authoring the city’s Green New Deal and stringent building energy efficiency requirements while on the city council.

In a statement on Tuesday night, Ballantyne thanked Somerville voters and said she looked forward to the campaign for the general election.

“We’ve shown that Somerville voters want the next mayor to share our progressive values, be an inclusive leader, and have the skills and experience to lead our dynamic city on day one,” she said.

One barometer of the candidates’ political position in leftwing Somerville, Ballantyne supported Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primary while Mbah backed Bernie Sanders.

attracted over 10% of the whole Tufts undergraduate student body to sign up on Fuzemee … so it’s around 600 students who have signed up to our app in just the second half of the day.”

In reflecting upon Fuzemee status as a social media app in the market, Tsetsekos emphasized its focus on college needs from the perspective of college students.

“Fuzemee is unique because it was created by college students for college students,” Tsetsekos said. “Tufts is the first school that we have launched [at], and we’re using this [opportunity] more or less as a pilot to learn from our user base and to keep improving our product so we can expand to other schools with better functionality than we had before.”

continued from page 1 However, Lungo-Koehn’s administration has also been wracked by a number of scandals in recent months, including the resignation of the budget director, a Black woman who accused the mayor of creating a hostile environment, as reported by the Medford Transcript .

The city’s director of veterans’ services also accused the mayor’s administration of not paying him for five months of work and demanded an ethics investigation around the same time, the paper reported.

Falco, who served on the city’s school committee from 2010 to 2015 before being elected to the city council, has focused on the city’s development and how it will spend millions of dollars in federal money from the American Rescue Plan.

MEDFORD

Tauro, a fierce critic of Curtatone who wielded his newspaper as a cudgel against the mayor with little regard for fact-checking or journalistic convention, said that he voted for Donald Trump in 2016, though he later said he regretted the vote, according to Boston.com.

Tauro’s central campaign planks were the removal of a bus-only lane on Broadway and an increase in the number of parking spaces.

Tauro, though he received less than 15% of the vote, announced on Facebook that his campaign will contest the primary election results due to alleged fraud.

“Due to the many discrepancies and alleged mishandling of the election ballots and results, the Tauro Campaign is pursuing legal action and an investigation into the several matters that appear questionable,” Tauro wrote in a post.

Medford voters chose between 14 candidates for school committee.

Each voter chose six candidates, and 12 advanced to the general election.

Incumbents Mea Quinn Mustone, Jenny Graham, Paul Ruseau and Melanie McLaughlin, as well as newcomers Sharon Hays and Andrew Milne, led the election with between 8.2% and 5.41% of the vote.

Notably, all six of those candidates are backed by the progressive group Mobilize Medford.

Incumbents Kathleen Kreatz and Paulette Van der Kloot placed seventh and eighth and will advance to the general election along with Robert Emmett Skerry, Cheryl Rodriguez, Colin Walsh and William Giglio.

Darlene Mattuchio and Kerry Laidlaw placed 13th and 14th, respectively, and were eliminated.

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Features

3 Thursday, September 16, 2021

Seniors share college wisdom with first-years

by Jillian Collins

Executive Features Editor

Your new white sneakers are demolished from orientation week floors, the pre-orientation group chat is no longer active and you now have a take on the Carm vs. Dewick debate. Now what?

Classes are starting and the daunting feeling of four years at Tufts might be creeping up on you. No need to fret; every Tufts student has been there.

Listen to these seniors as they reflect on their first year at Tufts and give advice on how first-years can make the most of their first few months of college.

“I think that first-years should focus on getting out of their comfort zone and not just doing the same things that they did in high school,” Steph Waugh, a political science student, said. “Those have been the most impactful experiences from my Tufts career.”

For international relations student Briana McGowan, it was as simple as changing the language she took when getting to college. “[In high school,] I took French, and then when I came to college, I was like, ‘I want to challenge myself, and I want to try something new,’ so then I just took Arabic kind of out of nowhere,” McGowan said. “Now I’m minoring in Arabic and now my career’s oriented towards the Middle East.”

Changing things up from high school can also take the form of joining a new activity.

“The first GIM I went to was the ballroom dancing GIM, which I just went to on a whim … I did not dance before at all,” Waugh said. “I really just loved the atmosphere. There was an immediate click, and the seniors were so welcoming, and that has become my main thing at Tufts. All because I decided to go to a random GIM, you know, the first week of school.”

At the same time, during the first semester, it is just as important that firstyears prioritize their mental health. René LaPointe Jameson, an environmental engineering student, noted that it is the difference between surviving and thriving in the first semester of college.

“You can only engage, learn, and adjust to college as well as you are feeling internally. If you make sure to prioritize your well-being with plenty of rest and time for the things you love you will not just survive the first semester but thrive,” Jameson wrote in an email to the Daily.

With classes starting and new deadlines approaching, it is easy for first-years to find themselves centering their lives around academics. Although important, academics do not need to be the main priority. For community health major Ann Christelle Labossiere, changing how she

approached school was a learning curve in her first year.

“I’m not subscribing to the idea that I need to constantly be up late just doing work … that’s actually not even healthy, so I started to realize I was pushing myself a bit too hard a few months into freshman year,” Labossiere said.

While easier said than done, taking time for self-care pays off. However, for the moments when first-years do find themselves lost in the depths of the Canvas class page, they should know there are other resources.

“Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and the same thing goes for academics. Your professors are there to teach you and to support you, so going to their office hours and admitting that you don’t know how to do something, or you don’t understand something — that’s what they’re there for … to help you,” McGowan said.

A common struggle for many first-year students is the intimidation factor of college. At the start, it can be very easy for students to feel as if they do not belong in this new learning environment.

“Imposter syndrome is real, sometimes, especially for, maybe, first-gen and low-income students. And so just kind of [remind] yourself, like, you have a space here,” Labossiere said.

Especially since Tufts is a predominantly white institution, students of color may feel marginalized academically and socially. Jameson reiterated the statement that all students should feel like they deserve to be at school like Tufts.

“To my fellow Black jumbos, remember you belong. You have a place here, you earned your spot in your class, and you are exceptional. Also, come by the Africana Center!” Jameson wrote.

As a school that has an undergraduate student population of nearly 6,000, it can be a difficult place to navigate compared to smaller high school classrooms. For Labossiere, getting used to the size took some time.

“My graduating class in high school was 45 students; we were a very small charter school in Boston,” Labossiere said. “So when I came to Tufts, I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness this school is so big.

I’m not going to know nobody. It is going to be really hard for me to like meet new people.’”

While at first Tufts may feel overwhelming, there are ways to make this midsize school small. For Labossiere, connecting with the identity centers allowed her to find a sense of community.

“I think [first-years] should focus on making themselves aware of all the resources on campus that are beneficial to them and their experiences here. I think there’s a lot of things I ended up learning like, ‘Oh, this support system through

BY CECILIA OROZCO the FIRST Center,’ or ‘the support system in the Africana Center can actually help me,’” Labossiere said. “I didn’t know until, like, maybe my sophomore or junior year.”

Community can also be felt by the people you see all over campus, such as in the dining hall workers.

“The Tufts Dining workers helped me get through my first year. Dining worker friends (shout out especially to Freddy and Tony) have always looked out for me and checked in on me when I got meals,” Jameson wrote. “Our dining workers work so hard and nourish us both physically with the food they serve and emotionally with their kindness. Please make sure to thank them!”

In the first few months of college, making friends is no easy task. Every day, first-years meet more and more people, and at some point it becomes impossible to remember all the names. Waugh remembers this feeling when they came to Tufts.

“It was hard to tell who was being real with me and [who was] putting on this facade to try to make new friends …

I think it was like the second semester when it started to become really obvious who actually enjoyed hanging out with me,” Waugh said. “I guess some advice for first-years would be don’t feel the pressure to make your solid group of friends at O-week or during the beginning of school because it’s okay and probably better if it molds and changes throughout the first couple years.”

The most powerful support system can also be just finding that one person, so first-

years should not feel pressure to find a group.

Waugh said, “I think finding at least one person that you can actually be real with was pretty helpful for me, so when I did have a breakdown or something, I had someone to talk to about it, [and it] wasn’t just all in my head.”

At the end of college, students may not remember the day they studied all day for that calculus midterm, but they will remember the time they got lost on the T for the first time. Seniors encourage first-years to make time for fun this year.

“I wish I spent more time exploring Boston. For some reason, I always thought if I’m going into Boston, I have to set a day aside. But it’s not that far or serious to go. Just go and explore,” Jameson wrote.

College is extremely different from high school, which is both exciting and terrifying. First-years should take these next four years to let themselves make mistakes, learn from them and just enjoy their time. “[There’s a] high school mentality of like ‘grades are everything,’ and you know, ‘I have to have this specific group of friends.’ College really isn’t like that.

You can kind of have the space and room to experiment and to mess up, and there are a lot of support systems around to help you when that does happen,” Waugh said. “I think it’s so important for people to make mistakes and not be perfect in an environment that is so supportive, so that later on when it happens inevitably in the rest of life, it’s not a jarring experience.”

Conversations on camp with Jo Michael Rezes

by Keira Myles Staff Writer

Jo Michael Rezes’ existence rests in camp, the concept first established by Susan Sontag in her 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp'” as an aesthetic absurdity that is artificial, passionate, serious; easy to see but hard to explain; and includes the seemingly unconnected examples of Tiffany lamps, Swan Lake and women’s clothes of the 1920s. As a Tufts Theatre and Performance Studies Ph.D. student

and an ardent devotee of queer temporalities in camp, Rezes is instructing the new Experimental College course, “Camp: Bad Taste, Humor, and Cult Classics” this fall.

In 1964, Susan Sontag defined camp as an aesthetic “sensibility” that is plain to see but hard for most of us to explain: an intentional over-the-top-ness, a slightly (or extremely) “off” quality, bad taste as a vehicle for good art.

As an undergraduate, they navigated their own identity through art and scholarship while studying English and drama

— concentrating in queer studies and stage direction. Embodying varying gender expressions, they sensed a shift in the movement of time, inspiring their scholarship onward.

“I started noticing that when I was taking on a character that was exploring gender or was actively a trans character,” Rezes said. “I was noticing moments in rehearsals and I was noticing moments in collaborative settings where time moved differently or felt like it moved differently in my body.”

Embodiment and movement altered their temporalities for Rezes while playing Seymour Krelborn in Little Shop of Horrors as an undergraduate. This role was a powerful discovery.

“Oh, I can play a man, but I don’t think I am a man. So that’s when a trans discovery happened. This queer moment happened for me, but also, it was fully imbricated in this Camp sensibility … Camp, gender, queerness are all wrapped up in this body see CAMP, page 4

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Features | Thursday, September 16, 2021

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Jo Michael Rezes discusses the ideas behind their ExCollege class CAMP

continued from page 3 and everyone’s body, and it was just very exciting,” Rezes said.

Rezes explored notions of time, embodiment, camp, gender and queerness in their master’s thesis at Tufts titled, “Phantacamp: Queer Temporal Ruptures in the Performance of Restaged Camp.”

After their thesis, they were inspired to design a syllabus teaching the unteachable and undefinable: camp. It just so happened the utter failure of the so-called “Camp”-themed 2019 Met Gala simultaneously occurred as they finished their thesis, further inspiring them to dive into the complexities of camp and its influence spanning varying media. In fact, one week in the course will be dedicated to focusing on the 2019 Met Gala, discussing the absurdity of watching celebrities attempt camp.

“I think there’s something about the Met Gala in 2019 and watching celebrities try to embody a sensibility that is inherently a minority area and trying to say, ‘I am the camp-est of the camp,’” they said.

“But meanwhile, having nine mansions and having to navigate the world as a rich celebrity may not be the best entry way for a camp moment or camp commentary.”

Rezes’ course will hone on the intricacies and nuances of camp and its historical development that the 2019 Met Gala failed to assess, particularly in regards to class and race.

“We’re going to be making sure that we dedicate more of the course to understanding camp as a black cultural aesthetic than one that might have been represented at the Met Gala in 2019,” Rezes said.

The course’s camp sensibilities are exposed through media, internet, and scholarship outlets, challenging students to question camp’s changing artistic and historical expressions over time. Rezes’ selections include Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp”; Christopher Isherwood’s first commentary on camp as a concept; the seventh season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (2009–); “The Dark Side of Camp Aesthetics” (2017); “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” (1986–1990); “Notes on the Uses of Black Camp” (2017); films by John Waters; “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975); and commentaries concerning horror, camp and actual summer camp.

In the final weeks, Rezes will examine their dissertation scholarship on HIV and AIDS history and performance, exploring themes of the haunting and dark sides of camp. Rezes’ thesis work focuses on camp

COURTESY JO MICHAEL REZES

Jo Michael Rezes is pursuing their Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies at Tufts while teaching a class in the Experimental College this semester. existing as a recycling practice that repurposes things that hurt in society by turning them into something beautiful. This was an idea proposed by José Esteban Muñoz in his book “Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics” (1999).

“As I developed my dissertation project on sweetness and the performance of HIV and AIDS, I was thinking about camp as innocence and sincerity and then the literalness of sweetness in these performances by those living with HIV and AIDS from the onset of the epidemic in the 1980s, at least from a US context, and seeing how sweetness manifested in that digital archive and paper trail archive of those living with HIV and AIDs,” Rezes said.

According to Rezes, the camp sensibility became a way for community members to communicate about safety and health amidst an oppressive government system.

“Camp became a language of sorts to communicate ideas across difference,” they said.

Rezes analyzes sweetness as understanding one’s sense of taste and what constitutes aesthetic “good” or “bad” taste, in addition to a literal sweetness masking the pain underneath campy appearances.

“In the dark side of camp aesthetics and a lot of contemporary camp scholarship we see camp as this artifice on top and underneath something a little bit

more horrific and a little bit shadowy and just terrifying underneath. Camp is this artifice on top of something that actually hurts, that is actually sometimes violent,” Rezes said. “[It] feels excessive, but underneath is something much more sinister.”

Rezes also looks at sweetness in camp as a modality for connection and as a form of confident protest defying deep suffering.

“Sweetness can be two people holding each other during a protest action and defying expectations of the media … but a protest could just be a kiss in public… sweetness as in wearing a very flashy outfit when you’re going out despite feeling like the world is against you … sweetness is a calling card for a lot of different things,” they said.

Beyond analyzing camp as a social LGBTQ embodiment, Rezes will host their students as campers at an imagined summer camp. The course’s syllabus replicates a camp itinerary, to play on both queer campiness while simulating a summer camp culture. They emphasized the importance of the community and camaraderie intertwined within the course’ material and structuring.

“I think we’re very hungry during this pandemic moment for connection and intimacy and all of this cult classic media, all of this campy material is very, very

close,” Rezes said. “It’s about taste. It’s about touch. It’s about sensation.”

Rezes is prioritizing collective learning in their classroom.

“We’re all engaged with creating the space equally and together, and I am not in control of anything or any of the ideas in the space necessarily,” they said.

The collective and creative camaraderie presents itself in the course’s assignments, including many performance projects like having students embody characters from reality TV scenes, filming a ‘50s/’60s/’70s/’80s aesthetic sex-ed PSA announcement, and performing the entirety of the film floor show “Rocky Horror.”

The final “Rocky Horror” floor show assignment connects powerfully to Rezes’ past, as they performed in “The Rocky Horror Show” as Brad Majors and FrankN-Furter. Expressing and playing with gender stereotypes with full force in both characters paved the way for their personal arc and growth in identity.

“I think it was just a full circle moment of my time as an artist and a scholar coming together and colliding where I said I am researching as I am developing this character and embodying this iconic figure,” Rezes said. “It was just full circle.

It just felt like: ‘Oh, I have come into my own as this trans artist scholar at that moment.'”

Before anything else, we are all human.

It’s time to embrace diversity.

Let’s put aside labels in the name of love.

Rethink your bias at lovehasnolabels.com

ARTS & POP CULTURE

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Thursday, September 16, 2021

The Met Gala’s ‘American Independence’ theme gave celebrity outfits too much freedom

VIA DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS / GETTY IMAGES

Lil Nas X wears Versace to the 2021 Met Gala.

by Paul Osmond Staff Writer

Huh? Everyone has been anxiously waiting for the 2021 Met Gala after COVID-19 postponed last year’s event. With 2019 bringing popularity to camp fashion, many were surprised to see this year’s Gala diverge from eccentric, exaggerated style and adopt the rather unimaginative “American Independence” theme.

Even so, there is hardly anything independent about American fashion; certainly, Americans desperately believe that they dominate the international fashion market, though this appears painfully inaccurate. According to Vogue, of the most trending fashion brands of 2021, only one American label – Virgil Abloh’s Off-White – appears among primarily Italian and French designers. And this was unfortunately represented at the Met Gala as the most famous celebrities wore primarily foreign designers. Perhaps, they should have limited the show to strictly young American designers considering the theme was “American Independence.” In any case, neither the American nor foreign designers presented themselves well with this woeful showing.

Now I, as it seems so many others, do not know what “American Independence”

means. Rather ambiguous, potentially problematic, I find myself painfully searching for an inclining of substance; unfortunately, the attendants leave little to work with. Nevertheless, there are some outfits which surely appear to exemplify “American Independence”.

Mj Rodriguez and “Pose” (2018–2021) co-star Indya Moore look presidential and powerful in Thom Browne and Saint Laurent respectively; Lupita Nyong’o and Versace draw from the mid-1900s in a sharp denim dress with sparkling accents; Kid Cudi once again references Curt Cobain in a punk-rock ensemble; Jack Harlow looks classy in a satin Tommy Hilfiger suit, mixing rockstar leather and cowboy aesthetics; Helen Lasichanh and Pharrell Williams flex in Chanel; and several men wore classic black-and-white tuxedos – Tom Ford, Heron Preston, Channing Tatum — certainly staples of American fashion; and Lil Nas X marked himself dazzlingly with a three-tiered ensemble: a regal Versace robe, a golden suit of armor, and gold-bedazzled onepiece underneath.

In terms of designers, Iris van Herpen, Versace, Thom Browne and Chanel all excel with classy yet innovative designs.

And it was refreshing to see several young American designers appear such as Jonathan Simkhai, ALIÉTTE by Jason

Rembert and Pyer Moss by Kerby JeanRaymond.

Although the median swagger was quite low, there were some standout appearances that did not necessarily fit the theme but certainly caught my eyes.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky look to become the next celebrity power couple with their intelligent ensemble — Rihanna in all-black Balenciaga Couture, Maria Tash, Thelma West and BVLGARI jewelry and A$AP Rocky in a colorful ERL cloak; Vera Wang in Vera Wang is more fascinating than it is beautiful, but it is certainly not something to condemn; Hailee Steinfeld floats as a snowflake in a Iris van Herpen mini-dress; and Frank Ocean remains our style icon in Prada x Homer reminiscent of his 2019 outfit although this time a green robot baby joins his side.

Now, the remaining celebrity looks fall under devastatingly terrible categories: some are dull or drab, some are simply confusing and others took the assignment far too seriously.

Nearly all Stella McCartney pieces were identical: monochrome sheer dresses exposing tight fitting undergarments — not necessarily terrible, but they hardly add anything to the show (although Ella Emhoff looks lovely in her candy-red outfit); Iman brandishes

an odd Dolce & Gabbana x Harris Reed piece that looks rather like a fountain of golden feathers; what the hell is Kim Petras’s horse outfit?; Addison Rae looks ready for high school junior prom in an elementary Tom Ford red dress; Ciara bastardizes an otherwise glistening green dress by plastering the details and number from her husband’s Seattle Seahawks jersey; Pete Davidson looks like a grandmother; Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Lauren seem to mash up the worst parts of the cowboy aesthetic; I’m not sure what Lil Baby was doing there; although Cordae was presentable, Naomi Osaka’s outfit and makeup are incredibly dissatisfying; Billie Eilish and Timothée Chalamet certainly did not botch their looks, but they were relatively tame for such coveted celebrities.

This year’s Gala was disastrously disappointing. Whereas 2019 introduced new styles, compositions and designers, completely transforming the couture and streetwear fashion paradigm, I cannot see this year carrying many cultural implications. Many outfits were uninspired, weird or poor interpretations of an overall confused theme.

Well, independence is certainly lovely, but perhaps too much freedom was given this year…

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | FUN & GAMES | Thursday, September 16, 2021

F& G

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Rebecca: “I feel like the Daily gave me carpal tunnel last fall.”

FUN & GAMES

SUDOKU

A DACHSHUND WALKS INTO A PARFUMERIE

Difficulty Level: Not going to Pub on a Tuesday.

By Juju Zweifach

Tuesday’s Solutions

SEARCHING FOR HEADLINES...

CROSSWORD

tuftsdaily.com

Opinion

7 Thursday, September 16, 2021

VIEWPOINT

Hurricane Ida’s devastation exposes greater climate issue at hand

by Emily Nadler Opinion Editor

By the numbers themselves, it goes without saying that Hurricane Ida has brought immense destruction and desperation to the neighborhoods and areas it passed through. Nearly a hundred people have died from Ida’s tornadoes, extreme flooding and heavy winds. Ida has affected 22 states, plus Washington, D.C., and torn through 1,500 miles of the United States.

Unfortunately, Ida’s devastation is not an isolated event. Evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that climate change is increasing the intensity of storms and resulting in damage that can not be undone.

It is imperative that we take action now against climate change by limiting the emission of greenhouse gases and investing in the use of renewable energy. If we do not make dramatic changes, rising sea levels and intense storms will make the landscape of our world unrecognizable and the effects of extreme weather and federal policies will continue to disproportionately affect marginalized communities.

As the Earth warms from the use of fossil fuels, the intensity of storms increases — a situation that António Guterres, the secretary-general of the U.N., called “a code red for humanity.” Guterres cited our proximity to the threshold of warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is considered the boundary between manageable or catastrophic changes to our climate and urged for immediate solutions that promote green economies and cleaner air. And while it is too late to reverse many of these changes, such as rising sea levels, it is not too late to take action which could reduce the use of many drivers of climate change.

BY JUJU ZWEIFACH The scale at which we must combat this crisis needs to be huge: while individual actions such as using less single-use plastic, reducing meat consumption and shopping more sustainably are important, change at the federal level is what will ultimately force big corporations to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

One way the federal government can take action is to create a fee or a tax to motivate corporations to reduce emissions. This can take the form of requiring companies to pay a fee per each unit of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases emitted. Corporations are forced to either pay the fee or change their behavior. Since 2018, there have been nine proposed pieces of legislation by U.S. senators and representatives attempting to authorize a federal carbon tax. However, such legislation continuously fails to win the support it needs to pass.

In addition to preventing further damage to the climate, there are actions the

government must take in order to mitigate the effects of a climate that causes extreme weather conditions like in the case of Hurricane Ida. Back in 2013, the federal government spent $1.3 billion on a storm surge barrier in order to prevent future storm surges in the area around New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. On account of this levee system, there was reduced flooding and less severe damages — and overall economic loss — under Hurricane Ida than under Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago.

Even though implementing preventative systems can be costly, repairing cities after extreme natural disasters is extremely expensive. Since 2005, extreme weather has resulted in $450 billion in damages. This is money that could have been allocated toward preventative measures that would result in lasting change. Nonetheless, it’s important to note that systems such as the barrier in New Orleans are not a be-all and end-all.

Unfortunately, many smaller working-class towns outside of New Orleans

did not reap the benefits of flood protection projects. In Larose, La., which is just over 50 miles from New Orleans, for decades local government officials have tried and failed to build a system similar to that of the one in New Orleans.

It is most often low-income communities and communities of color that are disproportionately impacted by climate policies.

For areas with smaller populations or less economic leverage, it’s much harder to gain support and funding from the federal government. While the people of New Orleans were able to receive aid, communities like Larose were largely forgotten.

Without concrete action, hurricanes at the same level of Hurricane Ida, or worse, will continue to wreak havoc and bring further devastation and hardship. Those that can afford to move might try to escape areas more susceptible to extreme weather. Those that can’t afford to leave will be left behind and face the greatest consequences of climate change. Without intervention, these areas might not survive.

VIEWPOINT

The extremity of the Texas abortion ban: What this means for women in the U.S.

by Sara Kessel Opinion Editor

On Wednesday, Sept. 1, the Supreme Court allowed Texas to uphold what is now the most repressive abortion law in the United States. The structure of Texas Senate Bill 8 (SB 8) mirrors the “heartbeat bills” of states like Georgia and Ohio, banning abortions past the detection of a fetal heartbeat.

However, the law in Texas is the first to bypass federal blocking due to a backdoor provision that calls for enforcement by civil action rather than by the state itself. Instead of designating government officials to enforce the law, SB 8 gives citizens the ability to sue anyone who aids an unlawful abortion and allows them to collect at least $10,000 in the process.

The implementation of this law presents a terrifying reality for Texan women, as abortions are banned six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy. Around 85% of all abortion procedures previously provided in the state of Texas would now be prohibited under the new law. Most women cannot even tell they are pregnant before the six-week mark. Forcing clinics to abide by this deadline virtually eliminates any possibility of receiving an abortion without breaking the law.

Consequently, this may propel many women to access abortions through unsafe methods, likely without assistance from the medical providers and doctors who are at risk of getting sued. Traveling across borders, taking harmful substances or allowing untrained individuals to terminate a pregnancy are all different routes women may choose when there is no safe alternative.

In the hours before the law went into effect, call centers transformed into helplines for desperate women. The law states that while patients themselves cannot be sued, citizens are free to sue clinics. This threat, along with the ban on abortions at six weeks of pregnancy, has contributed to a decline in the number of women coming into abortion clinics.

If clinics are found to be in violation of the law and sued, the ability for them to remain open becomes less and less likely. For those most vulnerable, including young, rural, low-income women and women of color, mass closure of abortion services presents a disproportionally harmful impact.

Pro-choice advocates have been rightfully alarmed at the spike in anti-abortion legislation over the past year. For anti-abortion leaders and proponents, the precedent that SB 8 sets may legitimize the possibility of over-

turning Roe v. Wade and enacting similar laws nationwide.

Across the 47 states where restrictions have been introduced, there is enormous potential for this kind of strategy to be used when drafting new legislation. Additionally, enforcement by private action could be used to enact laws that restrict other federal rights.

If a state wants to restrict anything from same-sex marriage to voter registration, they can simply justify it by enforcement through civil lawsuits rather than through government channels.

We cannot remain silent about this direct attack on the rights and safety of Texan women and we cannot let this new, terrifying reality in Texas become the standard for abortion access in the country.

The Biden administration has verbally attacked the law, calling it blatantly unconstitutional and suing Texas through the Justice Department on these grounds. However, there is no guarantee that this action will have the same impact as congressional legislation. The House of Representatives will soon vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act in the hopes of preserving abortion rights for women in all states. Putting pressure on our representatives to vote in favor of the bill can stop SB 8 and any future policies in its image.

BY SAM FARBMAN

It is just as important that we involve ourselves within our own communities.

Supporting local organizations such as Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts and the Boston Abortion Support Collective can provide crucial assistance to women seeking resources and aid in the greater Boston area. Joining prochoice organizations on campus is one way we can advocate for women’s reproductive rights. At Tufts, Students for NARAL fights for the right to choose through political advocacy and community engagement. As women’s rights are at risk of being ripped away, we must all do our part in protecting a woman’s right to choose.

8 Thursday, September 16, 2021

SPORTS

tuftsdaily.com

Men’s soccer moves to 3–0 after wins over Williams, Wesleyan

by Jack Adgate Staff Writer

Tufts men’s soccer was victorious over both Williams on Saturday and Wesleyan on Tuesday of this past week. The wins push the Jumbos’ record to 3–0 after an opening-night win over MIT last week.

Tufts kept its forward momentum rolling against Wesleyan on Tuesday night, winning 2–1 and surviving late second-half drama. After a scoreless first half, the Jumbos netted two goals within 90 seconds of each other to put down the Cardinals.

Early in the second half, senior defender Ian Daly found super-senior forward Mati Cano in the box with space, and Cano banged home the opening score for Tufts.

The pair have had a solid connection over the past two games, both assisting a goal for the other.

Hardly a minute later, Tufts was awarded a penalty after a hard foul in the box.

Super-senior Calvin Aroh stepped up to the spot and sent the keeper in the wrong direction to make it 2–0 in favor of the Jumbos.

After falling behind, the Cardinals picked up the pressure and pushed their line high up the field. Wesleyan finally broke through with about 20 minutes remaining after a shot ripped through a crowded box and barely

MICHELLE LI / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Tufts University men’s soccer team wins against Williams College on Sept. 11, 2021. slipped through first-year goalkeeper Erik Lauta’s hands after a valiant diving effort.

Only trailing by one, Wesleyan upped the pressure even more, but Tufts’ back line held strong. The Jumbo defense has continued to come up big early in the season, and they locked down another win on Tuesday night.

Saturday’s game against Williams was as expected for a NESCAC matchup: physical and aggressive. The Ephs managed to hold the Jumbos scoreless in a back-andforth first half, with both sides exchanging shots and battling for possession in the midfield.

Tufts finally cracked through early in the second half, as Daly slotted home a goal on a cross from Cano to mark the

game’s only score. The goal provided some energy that was much needed for the Jumbos. In the second half alone, they totaled 13 shots and 10 corner kicks, both more than Williams had the entire game.

“We had been drilling all week to work hard [at the] back post and to get our chances … I was there and lucky enough to finish mine,” Daly said about the goal.

The Jumbos retained their presence as a defensive powerhouse, with Lauta only seeing two shots put on the net all game.

Super-senior defender Biagio Paoletta and sophomore defender Max Clivio anchored a Tufts back line that has only conceded one goal this season.

“My defenders are all superb players and it’s very comforting as a goalkeeper

to have full confidence in your back line,” Lauta said. “The senior players here have all been very supportive and I’m extremely grateful for the warm welcome they’ve shown me as one of the youngest players on the field.”

With three straight wins to start the year, the Jumbos have solidified themselves as the No. 1 ranked team in the country.

“It feels amazing,” said Lauta about the win streak. “I couldn’t have wished for a better start to it all but I’m fully focused on keeping this run going for as long as possible.”

The Jumbos will travel to Brandeis to take on the Judges this coming Saturday, looking to keep their perfect start to the season.

Volleyball sweeps Tufts Invitational, continues undefeated start to season

by Matt Chen

Assistant Sports Editor

Riding on the heels of a season-opening win against Roger Williams, Tufts Volleyball continued its strong start to the season, sweeping the Tufts Invitational over the weekend. The Jumbos won games against the visiting Illinois Tech Scarlet Hawks, the Brandeis University Judges and the Wellesley College Blue.

Head coach Cora Thompson expressed her excitement to have the team be back with fans in Cousens Gymnasium in an email to the Daily.

“We were just so grateful and excited to be competing again,” Coach Thompson wrote. “These players have worked so hard to prepare for this opportunity and finally they have their chance to compete as a full team for what we hope will be a full season.”

In the opening game of the invitational against Illinois Tech, the Jumbos dispatched the Scarlet Hawks in three sets (25–14, 25–13, 25–19). Junior outside/ opposite hitter Jennelle Yarwood led the team with 11 kills on 19 attempts, good for a .526 hitting percentage. Yarwood also logged six digs, contributing to a total of 44 digs as a team.

“If you can serve the other team really well, and pass on your side, then you can really be successful for the hitter,” Yarwood said. “And our serves have been great, getting a lot of aces and just getting them out of system.”

Yarwood and fellow junior outside/ opposite hitter Maya Lightfoot combined for 21 of the Jumbo’s 39 kills on the night.

Senior setter Ariel Zedric and sophomore setter Maddie Yu combined for 32 assists, and senior outside/opposite hitter and co-captain Cate Desler logged eight kills and 12 digs.

SOPHIE DOLAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Tufts University women’s volleyball team plays the Williams College team in Cousens Gym on Sept. 11, 2021.

In what may have been the toughest game so far this season, Tufts defeated Brandeis 3–1 (17–25, 25–21, 25–21, 25–20) on Saturday. The Judges opened by handing the Jumbos their first set loss of the season, before the Jumbos clawed back to take the next three and win the game.

“They did not make a lot of unforced errors which forced us to take better care of the ball both offensively and defensively,” Thompson wrote. “ There was a lot of fight on their side and we were challenged to better our game, immediately.”

Junior libero Stephanie Lee tallied 21 digs for the Jumbos, while junior middle/opposite hitter and co-captain Grace Legris and Desler both led the team with 10 kills each. After Brandeis came back from an early Jumbos-lead of 10–4 in the third set to tie it at 17–17, Tufts pulled together to grind out a 25–21 win to take a 2–1 lead in the game.

To close out the Tufts Invitational, the Jumbos handily defeated the Wellesley Blue 3–0 (25–10, 25–12, 25–16). The majority of Tufts players saw the court, with Yarwood and fifthyear senior middle/opposite hitter and co-captain Jen Ryan leading the team with 9 kills a piece. Sophomore libero Megan Harrison led the team in digs with 12, while Yu led the team with 14 assists.

With their underclassmen all playing in their first collegiate season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jumbos’ upperclassmen have provided leadership in order to build chemistry within the team.

This chemistry has proven to be strong from the start, as the undefeated Jumbos have seen contributions from 16 different players.

“Playing experience doesn’t matter because you could easily step onto

the court,” Yarwood said. “We all are here because our coach saw something great in us.”

Yu in particular has impressed in her first few collegiate games, acting as one of the primary setters for the Jumbos early on.

“Gotta give a lot of props to [Yu], she’s really stepped up and so especially being a setter, you have to have a lot of court presence, which I know can be hard when you’re an underclassmen and in her first season,” Yarwood said.

“She’s done a really good job of commanding the court in that way, really calling plays, taking a lot of feedback on her sets, and she just shows up in the gym at practice every day and works really hard.”

Yu also praised Zedric for helping guide her through her first collegiate season, providing leadership and mentorship on and off the court. “[Zedric] has been an amazing teammate and mentor to me this season,” Yu said. “I am very lucky to be learning as much as I am from her, not only about volleyball, but also team culture and tradition too.”

Using her extra year of eligibility, Ryan returned to the Jumbos for a fifth season and has played an instrumental role in leading a relatively younger Jumbos squad.

“I can’t say enough about how important [Ryan’s] presence is on this team,” Coach Thompson wrote. “As a super senior, she brings invaluable information and experience to the court and can truly lead in the way that she knows this program needs to be led.”

The Jumbos season continues on Friday when they host NESCAC rival Connecticut College.