ARTS & POP CULTURE

tuftsdaily.com FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022

A message from our Assistant Arts Editors for Daily Week

by Tufts Daily Arts Staff

To celebrate the Daily this week, the arts section’s new assistant editors explain what their experience with the Daily has been and what it’s meant to them.

From Henry:

As someone who didn’t write for a student newspaper in high school, the idea of starting up in college seemed a bit daunting. Still, the Daily made it easy for me to involve myself. My movement toward the arts section seemed logical; as someone who prides themself on their strong Letterboxd and Goodreads profiles, artistic criticism came somewhat naturally for me. Still, writing for Arts has not only taught me how to properly discuss art and media but also how to analyze the broader impact art can have on our surrounding world. Media fundamentally impacts our conscience, both representing and molding the world around us. Thus, art criticism must not only dissect the entertainment mechanisms of a project but also the cultural impact. When I first started writing for the Daily, simply responding to the weekly ‘beats’ email with a movie I wanted to review, I don’t think I truly understood that. However, in the process of writing (and ultimately editing) for the Daily, I’ve come to terms with the broader social power of media. In editing for the Daily, I hope to bring that bigger focus to not only my own writing but to the section at large; it’s not only about the media we consume but the sociocultural implications.

From Carl:

I’m not really someone who likes to share. Having lived my whole life with a mix of social anxiety and Asperger’s, I’ve struggled with social settings and getting people to understand how I feel about anything. Writing has always been my escape from that. So when I first learned about the Daily during my freshman COVID-19 lockdown on campus, I jumped to write about the things that made me happiest: comic books, movies and TV. The Daily has been a consistent source of escape and fun for me, and while I eventually expanded to work for the news and video sections as well, Arts has always been where I’ve felt most at home. The writers and editors for this section were always so nice and always open to me writing whatever caught my interest, and it’s them that ultimately made me decide to want to be an editor for it myself. I chose to cover the ‘off-beat’ section content, mainly due to the fact that it’s where I could write about comics, but I also love the freedom and unpredictability this beat provides. There are few places at Tufts where I have felt more at home than the Daily, and it’s hard to put into words what that means for me these days.

From Siavash:

Throughout high school, I had very few interactions with the school newspaper, only ever writing a single movie review. When I signed up for the Daily, I imagined I was inadequately prepared, entering an organization purely composed of veteran writers and editors. But despite this, I found my initial exposure with the Daily to be very encouraging. I first started as a contributing writer for the arts section, only writing a couple of album and TV show reviews per semester. But as I began to find my passion for art history at Tufts, I translated that interest into my article topics and started to write more about museum exhibitions and artistic events in the local Boston area. I noticed that these topics, mostly focusing on institutional art, did not have a dedicated category in the Daily’s arts section. Thus, inspired by my interest in popularizing and promoting the visual arts, I pitched the idea of an ‘exhibition arts’ subsection and applied to be its first editor. As a result, my editorial duties directly correlate to my academic passions, encouraging my involvement in the paper and its topics. Since then, the Daily has functioned as an extension of myself and a medium in which I can write about the things I truly enjoy.

COLLAGE COURTESY MAEVE HAGERTY Assistants Arts Editors RaiAnn Bu, Siavash Raissi, Henry Chandonnet and Carl Svahn are pictured (from top left to bottom right).

From RaiAnn:

During high school, the school newspaper was the plight of the day. Both my friends were editors in chief and constantly filled me in on the stresses of completing the newspaper each month. As a result, I wanted to stay as far away from the newspaper as I could for the rest of my life given my secondhand experience. Over the summer, I met multiple people who were involved with the Daily, such as my friend Jack. They told me how fun writing for the Daily was and how it operated as a creative outlet for their interests and hobbies. I joined the Daily with great fear and intimidation. Throughout my entire time in college, I haven’t written essays in classes or been in an English course; I also believe that grammar rules are a suggestion. But I found the Daily to be the creative outlet I greatly missed within my school curriculum. I have always had a strong interest in the arts and fashion, which were often sidelined because of traditionally academic endeavors.

Writing for the arts section has become one of the highlights for the week, because I’m finally able to geek out about all the things my chronically online brain likes to investigate. Sometimes I feel like I’m writing into a void where no one actually reads my articles but in a way that’s comforting. The Daily allows me to write about things I have always wanted to express but felt limited by because of the pressure of academic excellence. I hope to continue being an editor because of all the great pieces I get to read by my fellow writers and to have an excuse to be more chronically online.

Feminism, sex and Ali Wong: ‘Don Wong’ is a comedic masterpiece

by Ryan Fairfield

Contributing Writer

This year, Ali Wong decided to give Netflix subscribers a unique, untraditional Valentine’s Day gift with her comedy special, “Ali Wong: Don Wong” (2022). “Don Wong” marks Wong’s third Netflix comedy special in addition to her previous work with Netflix for her film, “Always Be My Maybe” (2019), and her voiceover work for the series “Big Mouth” (2017–). As in her previous specials, Wong is still sporting her red glasses and patterned dresses that became greatly associated with her comedic image.

In her first comedy special, “Baby Cobra” (2016), Wong stated, “I think feminism is the worst thing that ever happened to women.” Anyone who has seen this special, or her second one, “Hard Knock Wife” (2018), knows that Wong does not actually hate feminism — she just believes that feminism ruined her dream of being “a trophy wife,” as feminism often encourages women to go out into the workplace and take charge, while Wong would much prefer to sit at home and be, in her words, “a trophy.” The irony behind this joke is that not only is Wong now the breadwinner of her family after having an extremely successful career, but her comedy itself is inherently feminist.

Wong expresses feminism in her comedy by calling out various gender disparities and sexism. At the start of “Don Wong,” Wong jokes about how when men become successful comedians, their romantic lives thrive and they start dating actresses and supermodels — just look at Colin Jost. When women become successful comedians, however, they find their dating lives to be bleak. Wong claims this is due to the fact that men fear women who have more money and power than they do. It is moments like these in Wong’s comedy, where she says something insightful and intriguing, but in a wonderfully funny way that really emphasizes what a good comedian she is.

In addition to feminism, Wong’s comedy is incredibly sexual. Wong makes countless jokes about various sexual encounters she had or dreamed of, whether it be masturbating to Jason Momoa or wanting to cheat on her husband. From joking about a sexual fantasy involving the cast of “The Avengers” (2012) to acting out various sexual positions, Wong confidently, and hilariously, proves her comedic genius once again.

Wong also discusses the iconic character, Hello Kitty. A short 15 minutes into the special, after discussing how her direct messagess are filled with creepy messages from her male fans, Wong states “I never check my DMs, and when I do, its only to see if Sanrio, the owners of Hello Kitty, have