Fall 2015 Issue 3 by Tufts Observer

TUFTS OBSERVER

OCTOBER 26, 2015

VOLUME CXXXVXIV, ISSUE 3

FEAR IS NOT BIRTH CONTROL (PAGE 2)

CONFRONTING A MOTHER’S SUICIDE (PAGE 10)

WHY ARE ALL HORROR MOVIES ABOUT SEX? (PAGE 24) #FEar

Staff editor-in-chief Katharine Pong managing editor Moira Lavelle creative director Chelsea Newman news Claire Selvin Will Freeman opinion Ben Kesslen Jamie Moore

October 26, 2015 Tufts Observer, since 1895

Volume CXXVXIV, Issue 3 Tuftsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Student Magazine

TABLE OF CONTENTS

arts & culture Xander Landen Carly Olson campus Julia Doyle Gabby Bonfiglio tech & innovation Dana Guth Tess Ross-Callahan poetry & prose Aishvarya Arora photography director Alison Graham photography editor Menglan Chen art director Eva Strauss assistant art director Rachel Cunningham

FEATURE Undereducated Under the Sheets by Katharine Pong

NEWS The Stigma Cycle by Misha Linnehan

lead artists Tess Dennison Nina Hofkosh-Hulbert

NEWS The New Cold War Myth

lead copy editor Liza Leonard

by Will Freeman

copy editors Will Hodge Emily Ng Maya Pace Emma Pinsky Lauren Samuel

OPINION Rethinking my Better by Anna Oremland

publicity director Yumi Casagrande publicity assistants Ashley Miller Kyle Scott

OGUL GIRGIN

POETRY Exit Through the Gift Shop by Julia Pappageorge

CAMPUS Is it Only in My Head? by Sarah Nechamkin

ARTS & CULTURE Freedom From Fear: Refugees and Art in Jordan by MT Snyder

web editors Greta Jochem Lily Hartzell design team Kayden Mimmack Chase Conley Lynette Bian Zoe Baghdoyan Franny Kamio Astrid Weng Conrad Young Alexandra Benjamin

ARTS & CULTURE Horror’s Bloody Union ADRIAN DICORATO

PHOTO INSET Face to Face

by Claire Selvin

Contributors

Alyssa Antman, Elena Bell, Kristina Chu, Evan Cook, Adrian DiCorato, Ogul Girgin, Kaitlyn Johnson, Ryan Johnson, Kristiana Jordan, Sophie Martin, Patrick McFee, Hayley Oliver-Smith, Eric Snyder

Theme

POETRY Softboys

Fear is psychological, cultural, and ever-present in our world. It affects what we do and don’t talk about, and how we talk about these things. From horror films to geopolitical standoffs to the intimate pain of losing a loved one, we explore the role of fear in our lives.

by Angie Sijun Lou

OPINION The Importance of Trigger Warnings by Kari McNeil

PATRICK MCFEE

TECH & INNOVATION Message Failed to Send by Gabby Bonfiglio

POLICE BLOTTER

by Moira Lavelle

The Tufts Observer has been Tufts’ student publication of record since 1895. Our dedication to in-depth reporting, journalistic innovation, and honest dialogue has remained intact for over a century. Today, we offer insightful news analysis, cogent and diverse opinion pieces, creative writing, and lively reviews of current arts, entertainment, and culture. Through poignant writing and artistic elegance, we aim to entertain, inform, and above all challenge the Tufts community to effect positive change.

KAITLYN JOHNSON

@tuftsobserver

www.tuftsobserver.org COVER BY BRUNO OLMEDO

FEATURE

UNDEREDUCATED By Katharine Pong

exual education in the United States is often epitomized by certain tropes and over-told jokes: an awkward middle-aged gym teacher shoves a condom on a banana and lectures students about the dangers of sex; students snicker to cover up their discomfort and then go home and Google their questions. Sexual education programs like this are uncomfortable, uninformative, and unsuccessful in reaching students. But to what degree are stereotypical depictions accurate? In a survey conducted by the Tufts Observer, students reflected on their experiences with sexual education in secondary school (middle and/or high school). Their responses varied. Some students reported that their sexual education programs were “woefully inadequate,” “shaming and uninformative,” and “minimal.” Others described their experiences as “very comprehensive and progressive” and said that they “felt well-informed.” Positive sexual education experiences are important. If students are not

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October 26, 2015

taught about how to have safe sex that pertains to them, they are unable to make well-informed decisions. This has consequences, as teenagers in the US experience high rates of STIs, teen pregnancy, and abusive relationships. Advocates for Youth, an organization that works both in the US and internationally to support adolescent reproductive and sexual health, states on their website that “teens who received comprehensive sex education were 50 percent less likely to experience pregnancy than those who received abstinence-only education.” If comprehensive sexual education matters, then why isn’t every student receiving it? Sex is a fraught topic. There are endless viewpoints on who should have sex and why they should have it, and all of them are influenced by cultural, religious, and personal beliefs. This contentiousness coupled with the extremely personal nature of sex and bodies means that sex is uncomfortable to talk about, at the very least.

On a policy level, the difficulty of talking about sex means that sexual education is often left unaddressed. Nationwide, there is no law that regulates states’ sexual education policies. Only 22 states and the District of Columbia require public schools to teach sexual education. 19 of these require the education to be medically, factually, or technically accurate, which essentially allows sexual education curriculums in 31 states to either give false information or none at all. Because there is no real standard for sexual education, students within one state may have vastly different experiences. One student from Massachusetts commented, “I feel like from a young age I received factual, science-based information about puberty and sex in a sex-positive way.” Another student from Massachusetts said, “We watched two videos about sex. Both ended with the girl dead.” The idea behind sexual education is to teach students how to make good decisions about sex. But sexual education programs that present inaccurate or irrelevant

ART BY CHELSEA NEWMAN

FEATURE

UNDER THE SHEETS information are useless at best and actively harmful at worst. “We were told that the rhythm method was more effective than condoms—worst misinformation I’ve ever heard handed to young teenagers,” commented one respondent. (The rhythm method is a method of family planning that involves tracking a woman’s ovulation cycle and then timing intercourse to provide the least risk of pregnancy. It does not protect against STIs and is not more effective than condoms.) Furthermore, the quality of a sexual education program depends on both its content and the ways in which that content is taught. A student reported a positive experience because of “the level of detail and respect we got—the teachers were candid and treated us as semi-adult.” Conversely, students reported negative feelings about sexual education because of factors like the incompetency and/or identities of their instructors, who else was in the classroom with them, and a lack of anonymity when asking questions. “[Sex ed] class was always awkward,” said one respondent. “The

teacher herself didn’t know much,” said another. “We had one day in which we could ask any questions and she literally sat there and Googled them with us.” In addition to reporting discomfort, multiple students said they felt outright scared by the material. “The point of the course seemed to try to scare kids away from sex [and] make it more frightening,” said a student from Massachusetts. Another student noted, “I remember being very scared of having sex because it seemed like there were so many risks.” These one-sided narratives both stem from and perpetuate fear. “I think there’s a lot of cultural fear around talking about sex in general, but certainly in talking about and acknowledging that young people are engaged in sex in different ways and…in younger ages than people want to assume,” said Ali Safran, founder of the nonprofit Surviving in Numbers, to the Tufts Observer. Surviving in Numbers provides space for sexual assault survivors to talk about their experiences and brings trainings about sexual violence to high schools in the Boston area.

She continued, “There’s fear coming from the people teaching about it [and] fear from the people who don’t know and want to learn, and…that plays into how anyone relates to sex.” Sexual education programs in secondary school have lasting impacts on students, affecting how they relate to and operate within a college atmosphere. With such varied sexual education experiences, students are coming to Tufts with a multitude of backgrounds in both experiences and knowledge. At Tufts, many students are living away from home for the first time. A college campus provides a hookup culture and a steady discourse surrounding sex. Without the resources or background to navigate this environment, it can be hard for students to make good decisions pertaining to sex. “People have such different experiences in their sex ed and there are such huge gaps in their knowledge. So many people are coming [to Tufts] without knowledge about their own bodies,” said sophomore Sara Newman. Newman is the co-presi-

October 26, 2015

Tufts Observer

FEATURE

dent of Vox, the Planned Parenthood affiliate on campus that seeks to advance reproductive justice through education and activism. Newman said that Health Services has asked Vox to hold a joint forum or panel for basic sexual education because Health Services has seen such a large number of students who are not educated on sexual health. Moreover, sexual education experiences are heavily informed by social identities such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. Sexual education programs are often irrelevant, not culturally appropriate, or nonexistent. Many students reported that their sexual education programs were heteronormative and adhered to the gender binary, framing sexual intercourse as solely consisting of vaginal penetration of a cisgender woman by a cisgender man. One queer-identifying survey respondent commented, “I learned noth-

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ing relevant to my own sex life.” Another said, “As a queer student I felt very isolated from a lot of the mainly heteronormative dialogues that took place in class. Had there been more focus on LGBTQIA+ health issues, I might have felt more comfortable and more engaged.” The Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that seeks to advance reproductive health, reported that eight states require sexual education programs to be “appropriate for a student’s cultural background and not be biased against any race, sex, or ethnicity.” This suggests that there is both a need for, and a lack of, culturally and identity appropriate sexual education. When sexual education is not relevant to already marginalized students, it further excludes and disadvantages them. Advocates for Youth notes that queer and trans youth and youth of color are disproportionately at risk for negative sexual health outcomes

such as STIs (including HIV/AIDS) and unintended pregnancies, as well as harassment, homelessness, and abuse. For example, young queer black men acquire HIV at a rate of 16 percent, compared to 7 percent for young queer Latino men, and 3 percent for young queer white men. These sexual health disparities are rooted in structural barriers and systems of oppression and do not have a simple solution, but comprehensive sexual education is one way to address them. Furthermore, while it is difficult to evaluate sexual health resources for people with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities because they are not always enrolled in mainstream schooling, it is important to note that they often do not receive sexual education either in school or at home. Junior James Gordon and sophomore Kathy Nguyen are the co-chairs of Tufts Health Advocates (THA), a student group that addresses health needs on campus

I think that consent has to be taught as part of sex ed, but that you need sex ed to truly have consent.

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October 26, 2015

FEATURE

through advocacy, education, and policy changes. They told the Observer, “THA is interested [in thinking] about how raced and classed differentials in sexual education exposure translate onto the Tufts campus. We want to think critically about how the sex ed programming available on campus can then better accommodate students who are in different places in their learning, while being conscious of where those differences in experience come from.” Addressing these knowledge gaps in nuanced, comprehensive, and nonjudgmental ways is crucial. When students are uninformed about sex, coming to college can be confusing, isolating, and overwhelming. “If someone had no sexual experience and they… didn’t realize their school had a party/ frat culture and a hookup culture, they may feel really unsure [about] how to manage that,” said Safran. Additionally, they may not feel included in campus dialogue about sex. Many campus conversations about sex occur around sex positivity and consent. While these are extremely important conversations, Newman emphasized that discourse needs to build off of a foundational base of knowledge about sex. She said, “[Sexual

education and conversations about consent] really complement each other. It’s easier to understand yourself and to make choices that you feel comfortable with if you really understand your body and how your choices will affect your body. I think that consent has to be taught as part of sex ed, but that you need sex ed to truly have consent.” She also identified “an aspect of sex compulsivity to the hookup culture” that could put pressure on students who are not interested in having sex, particularly those who have never been taught that this is okay. Gordon and Nguyen added, “There are a lot of really fantastic conversations happening on campus surrounding sex positivity, but we also need to think more critically about who is and isn’t included in those conversations and the role that sex education plays in that.” With so many factors contributing to students’ sexual education experiences, what can make students’ sexual knowledge and experiences at Tufts more positive? It is important to fill in students’ knowledge gaps. THA, Vox, and other student groups on campus are working to do so. This semester, THA is looking to assess sexual education needs on campus, em-

phasizing a critical perspective that considers the role of race and class in access to resources. While still forming detailed plans for the year, they are “thinking about how [they] might best create an intentional space in which students and speak openly about their experiences with sex education, both on campus and beyond.” Vox is planning its panel with Health Services and is constantly working to connect students to resources both on campus and off-campus. Additionally, they will be supporting Planned Parenthood’s Sex Ed Matters campaign, which is advocating for a comprehensive sexual education policy across Massachusetts. They will be collecting student signatures and stories in support of the bill. This campaign provides a structural solution that can help students in Massachusetts access good sexual education before they leave high school. Ultimately, these efforts serve to open up dialogue about sexual health and improve people’s experiences with, and relationships to sex. As Newman said, “Giving people the information and making people feel comfortable asking questions about sex will make the experience safer, the campus safer, and the atmosphere safer for everyone.”

October 26, 2015

Tufts Observer

NEWS

THE STIGMA CYCLE

How gun violence perpetuates fear of mentally ill citizens By Misha Linnehan

ass shootings are an unthinkably terrifying concept. The fact that an individual with weapons purchased entirely within the bounds of the law could walk onto a college campus at any moment and open fire is scary, even as an abstraction. It is an event that has recurred countless times in the past few years, a reality that could arrive at your campus, office building, or movie theater. It has caused widespread panic throughout the country. It has caused politicians to call for stricter gun regulations. It has caused colleges and other public venues to invest resources into significant threat management systems. And it has caused the national media to erupt into a frenzy... Many pundits and scholars, who say that discussion of gun violence actually incites more violence, have criticized this intense media reaction. A recent study published in Plos One demonstrates that this is likely the case—in the weeks following a mass shooting, the number of crimes of a 6

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October 26, 2015

similar nature increases greatly. The same study estimates that between 20 and 30 percent of all mass shootings come in the aftermath of others. Commenting to CNN on this study, Northeastern criminologist Jack Levin said, “It’s the excessive media attention that creates the copycat phenomenon. We make celebrities out of monsters.” In comments to the Tufts Observer, University of New Hampshire sociologist David Finkelhor agreed: “The fantasy of getting notoriety through mass shooting has gained currency. Mass shooters are covered for days, and detailed articles on their life stories, backgrounds, and likely motives fill the papers and TV shows.” The negative effects of sensational coverage extend beyond increasing the number of shootings—they also engender fear in society. This fear has manifested itself in countless ways, but one of the most harmful is in our views of the mentally ill. A study by Tess Experiments found that news stories that covered mass shootings

carried out by a mentally ill person created a “heightened desired social distance from, and perceived dangerousness of persons with serious mental illness.” However, it is important to note that often only white men are deemed mentally ill in these cases of gun violence. People of color are typically further criminalized and demonized in instances of violence. Discussions of “black on black crime” or “criminality” proliferate, and no easy excuse is offered by the mass media. This is rather unsurprising given the detail with which each shooter is described in the media and how their intents are often explained as the result of mental illness. The shooters at Newtown, Aurora, Columbine, Tucson, and, most recently Umpqua Community College, all had some form of diagnosable mental illness. As these figures are profiled in newspapers and on television, it makes sense that associations form between mental illness and mass shootings. ART BY EVA STRAUSS

NEWS

This characterization of mental illness as an indicator of violent behavior has become particularly prevalent with certain illnesses. Schizophrenia, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and most recently, autism, have come under fire as disorders creating unhinged, dangerous individuals. Recently, a Facebook page called “Families Against Autistic Shooters” received a great deal of media attention. While Facebook did eventually remove the group, its mere existence demonstrates the types of sentiments being directed toward the mentally ill due to their association with violent crime. However, these associations are not accurate. According to Tufts Psychology Professor Sam Sommers, “Some shooters have serious mental illness, some are high functioning individuals in many respects… and the vast majority of people with mental illness do not commit crimes like this.” Statistics back him up. A study by the National Institute of Health showed that less than 5 percent of mentally ill people commit violent crime and, perhaps more surprisingly, less than 5 percent of gun crimes are perpetrated by mentally ill people. Given that associating these senseless acts of violence with mental illness is neither fair, nor correct, prejudices that result from such associations are equally unjust. Psychology author Andrew Solomon described how pigeonholing the mentally ill as violent is “an insidious form of targeting,” which might contribute to mentally ill people being harassed and excluded from society. This is just the latest form of inequity to besiege the mentally ill community, which has faced both social and institutional prejudice for most of US history. For example, approximately two million people with mental illnesses are jailed each year. In thinking about this statistic, Finkelhor explained, “When psychiatric hospitals were largely disbanded [in the 1960s] the plans to create community support for the mentally ill were never adequately funded. Thus treatment resources are scarce, patients are not well managed, and they become desperate—get into illegal drugs or criminal behavior, and sometimes commit crimes to get help.” Tragedies like this demonstrate the harmful nature of media coverage that paints mentally ill individuals as dangerous and creates aversion to them among

the general public. Increased stigma decreases the likelihood of legislative focus on the clearly broken mental health system. And while Republican lawmakers have spent the last three weeks calling for renewed efforts to fix that very system, it is unclear whether they are sincere in their feelings or are just trying to steer the national conversation away from gun control. Finkelhor expressed cynicism about their efforts, citing sparse conservative support for funding community mental health programs in the past. If the Republicans’ newfound focus on mental health is indeed merely their way of suggesting solutions other than increased gun regulations, they are reflecting another fear that the intense media coverage of mass shootings has spawned: the fear among gun owners that the government is out to get their guns. In liberal circles, the frequency of mass shootings has given birth to increased support for gun control. However, among conservatives, it has instead spawned a fear of gun control. New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow described this demographic as “afraid of a time conservative media and the gun industry has convinced them is coming when sales of weapons… will be restricted or forbidden.” This fear is reflected in gun sales over the past few years. While there is no exact way to measure total gun purchases nationwide, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) has data that shows an increase in total background checks from just under 500,000 in 2010 to nearly 4 million in 2014. Furthermore, the rate of gun ownership in the country has remained rather steady over the past few years, suggesting that a majority of these gun purchases are coming from people who already own firearms. When asked by the Tufts Observer what might be causing this trend, Mitch Kopacz, the President of Gun Owners of New Hampshire, explained that there is a “fear [among people] that their right to own things is going to change—magazine bans, assault weapons bans. There’s a fear that they will lose their guns.” While the media’s sensationalizing, and perhaps indoctrinating, coverage may be disseminating fear among the population, there is some reason for optimism—

both about our fears and their causes. For one, this is by no means the most scared Americans have been about violent crime in our history. According to Finkelhor, “We’ve definitely been through more fearful times when politicians like Nixon could win elections with law and order appeals. Right now, even some conservative lawmakers are supporting releasing offenders and reducing sentences, which tells me that crime fears are not high.” Violent crime has been declining steadily for years, and some sociologists even suggest that we are at the least violent point in the history of humanity. And, in terms of the increasing number of mass shooting events, governments, businesses, and schools are working hard to figure out the best ways to prevent them in the future. In 2013, Tufts established the Threat Assessment and Management program. The program is focused on “evaluating and addressing violence and threats of violence made toward members of the university community.” Its website has information on recognizing threatening behavior, reporting concerns to authority, and general keys to preventing violence on campus. This program is an example of how college administrations are working hard, in the midst of great fear, to transform these terrifying realities back into merely concepts. As certain political groups cast blame for gun violence on mentally ill citizens in an effort to maintain gun rights, we must examine the repercussions of such actions. If there is going to be any hope for improving the health care and job opportunities available to mentally ill Americans, we need to stop the cycle of stigmatization that is rampant and ongoing. O

This is just the latest form of inequity to besiege the mentally ill community. October 26, 2015

Tufts Observer

NEWS

THE NEW COLD WAR

MYTH

By Will Freeman

Russia’s complicated relationship with with the US

he first Democratic debate of the primary season saw Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and other contenders face off over the issues that will define next year’s race for the White House: among them, Washington’s stance towards Russia. While the candidates were quick to confidently stake out their stances on the domestic economic issues that have become the focal point of the primary, when discussion turned to policy, the Democratic hopefuls hit some unexpected turbulence. Moderator Anderson Cooper pressed the contenders on how they would respond to Russia’s “challenging” of the US in Syria—a reference to recent Russian airstrikes targeting rebel groups ranging from ISIS to US-funded “moderates” fighting to topple the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The best the candidates had to offer in response were vague answers, backed up by a little saber rattling. Hillary Clinton demanded that we “stand up to [Putin’s] bullying…specifically in Syria,” but didn’t specify how, aside from taking on “more of a leadership position.” Bernie Sanders unconvincingly grumbled, “Mr. Putin is going to regret what he is doing,” but didn’t offer a clear policy prescription for how we might resolve what is starting to look like the beginnings of a Middle Eastern proxy war. Although the debate quickly veered back to domestic issues, in all likelihood the candidates running for office in 2016 won’t be able to put the topic of US-Russian relations behind them. With Russia’s interven8

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tion in Syria making international headlines and the Kremlin-fueled conflict in Ukraine still festering, whoever wins the next election will face a crucial decision about how to interpret Russia’s increasingly assertive role in global affairs. And the tone used to discuss Russia will likely have real implications on Washington’s foreign policy. To say that US-Russian relations were entirely pacific until last year’s upheaval in Ukraine would be to gloss over some pretty significant rifts. Tensions flared when the US announced plans (later aborted) to install a missile defense system in Poland on Russia’s doorstep in 2008. The same year, Russia earned the Bush administration’s condemnation by invading neighboring Georgia, ostensibly to protect resident Russian ethnic minorities. However, the real turn for the worse came with the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2014. While the US backed a fledgling pro-Western regime in Kiev, the Kremlin funneled money and troops to separatist forces fighting for autonomy in the country’s east. Several rounds of economic sanctions later, diplomatic relations between the two nations had thoroughly soured and major American newspapers were heralding the coming of a “New Cold War.” Now, with Russia and the US backing opposing sides in Syria’s civil war and flying regular missions over Syrian airspace, the potential for escalation lends the catchy media trope some credibility. The reinvigorated standoff on multiple fronts indeed echoes the tense stalemate the

Soviet Union and US maintained throughout much of the 20th century. But the “New Cold War” narrative also implies the return of mistrust between Russia and the US on a deeper societal level. After all, the character of US-Russian relations over the last hundred years was not formed solely by elite policy makers. Animosity between the two great powers also sent ripples through domestic politics, spawning McCarthyism, the “Red Scares” of the 1950s, and widespread fear of the perceived threat posed by Russia. If the Cold War was characterized by generalized anxiety on such a large scale, does the idea that we’re witnessing a second Cold War today hold water?

For many Russians, seeing their country as a great power is just as important as it is for many Americans. Public opinion suggests the answer might be yes. Just last year, Russia edged out North Korea as the country Americans consider to be the US’s greatest enemy, according to a Gallup poll. If we trust in experience, Americans who lived through the peak of Cold War tensions in the 1950s

NEWS

and ‘60s should be the most accurate judges of whether current hostilities resemble those of their youth. Indeed, those Americans 65 and older were reported to both follow news about conflicts with Russia more closely than any other age bracket and display the strongest conviction that the US is headed towards another Cold War-esque conflict with Russia. Meanwhile, Russians’ animosity towards the US has also grown. According to survey data gathered by the Moscow-based Levada Center last year, a full 62 percent of Russians hold the view that “relations between Russia and the West will always be rooted in mistrust.” A poll conducted at the same time by the Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago suggests 65 percent of Russians hold an unfavorable view of the US—up from just half that figure in 2012. The increasingly conflictive dynamic between Russia and the US has sent shock waves beyond the walls of the White House and the Kremlin. But despite roiling tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, some remain skeptical of comparing current US-Russia relations with the colossal face off of the Cold War, which pitted ideologies of capitalism and market democracy against communist authoritarianism. In an interview with the Tufts Observer, Tufts Professor of Modern Russian History Rachel Applebaum cast doubt on the integrity of the historical analogy. While acknowledging certain parallels with the Cold War era, Applebaum stated, “I don’t find the notion of a new Cold War a very useful paradigm for understanding the current state of relations between the US and Russia…During the Cold War, both the US and the Soviet governments thought of the tensions between them as an ideological struggle for systemic supremacy.” In contrast, she noted that today, “both the Russian and the United States governments have a much less clearly defined mission on the world stage; it’s much less clear what ideas they stand for.” In the absence of the broad ideological framework that characterized Cold War contestation, the current downturn in relations with Russia stops short of instilling fear on a massive scale. Even if feelings of hostility haven’t, and probably won’t, return to their Cold War

ART BY RACHEL CUNNINGHAM

peak, it seems unlikely that the RussianAmerican rift can be easily smoothed over. Professor Applebaum explained that growing animosity in both nations is linked to deeper sentiments of patriotism and nationalism. “I would argue that for many Russians, seeing their country as a great power is just as important as it is for many Americans,” she said. “We are all familiar with American poli-

ticians who worry the US is being eclipsed on the world stage by other countries, like China. Similar anxieties exist in Russian politics.” Competition breeds anxiety and anxiety fuels increased competition. Ironically, the striking similarity of the calculations that lead Russians and Americans to fear one another complicates, rather than simplifies, the path towards a resolution. O

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Tufts Observer

OPINION

RETHINKING MY “BETTER” By Anna Oremland

Author’s Note: This article discusses suicide; however, the author would like to encourage those who might be triggered by this topic to continue reading. It is her hope that this article aids in the healing process for those who have lost a loved one to suicide.

n the foggy pre-dawn hours of July 24, 2012, my mom jumped off a beachside cliff and ended her life. It was the summer before my senior year of high school, and I was 17 years old. My mother’s death did not come as a surprise; it was the culmination of a long battle with intense physical and mental pain. Like many others who have lost a loved one to suicide, I have experienced the shame, confusion, and guilt that accompany this overwhelming grief. I have faced the stigma surrounding suicide and I have felt the isolation that often results from society’s inability to talk about it. There are only a handful of people at Tufts who know this (somewhat) defining fact about me, but my hesitancy to share my story does not stem from a decision I made willingly. It comes from a vulnerability that is shared by many survivors of suicide loss. In writing this article, I’m effectively busting open the box within which I have filed away this integral part of who I am, and it is such a fucking relief. There is an undeniable stigma around both suicide and mental illness. While this stigma has been progressively stripped away in recent years, it still exists. Suicide is a taboo subject that is only reluctantly

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discussed—if discussed at all. The fear of talking about suicide is not illogical, however. We don’t like to think about suicide because suicide just doesn’t make sense, or at least we don’t want it to. In my mom’s case it was a rational decision made in an irrational state of mind, and it is hard, if not impossible, to understand the pain that ultimately leads someone to end their own life. My fear of discussing my mom’s death comes from the hyperawareness I have of other peoples’ needs. In a world dominated by trigger warnings and censorship, I’m afraid to upset someone else with my own loss. I am also afraid of the social awkwardness that could result from talking about my mother’s death. In an effort to avoid discomfort, I pepper my life with little white lies that snowball into a broader invalidation of my own feelings. The problem is that the more I bury my grief, the stronger and more powerful it becomes. There is a wall between my internal need to speak out about my loss and the external reasons that keep me silent, and it is a barrier that society as a whole struggles to break through. No one wants to talk about death—let alone suicide—but not acknowledging that it exists only perpetuates and exacerbates the pain we try so hard to ignore. To be perfectly clear, I believe that grief is grief. Regardless of whether you’ve lost a parent, a sibling, an aunt, an uncle, or a friend, experiencing the death of someone close to you sucks. Period. One type of

grief doesn’t trump another, but there are intricacies and nuances that are specific to certain types of loss. By writing about my experience I in no way want to invalidate other types of loss. That being said, loss to suicide is complex, and the uncertainty surrounding this type of death only adds other emotional layers to the grieving process. I still feel guilty about my mother’s death, and I’m not sure if I’ll ever truly be able to forgive myself for all the “shoulda, woulda, couldas” that play over and over in my head. I can rationally say that I don’t blame myself, but irrationally I can’t help but feel at fault. Mourning someone who killed themself is an intensely introspective process, and one that is too often suffered alone. Unlike people who have lost someone to a terminal illness, survivors of suicide are often not given the closure of acknowledging the struggle their loved one went through, and often the cause of death is not discussed. My mother’s obituary does not include how she died, nor was it mentioned at her memorial service. This immediate censorship was done to protect both her and her loved ones, but it haunts me now. I am extraordinarily protective of my mom because I am keenly aware of the judgment and pity that follows a suicide—a reaction that might stem from the misconception that it is an inherently selfish act. Well-intentioned but forced condolences lead to awkward silences, which in turn may lead to a complete

ART BY PATRICK MCVEE

OPINION

No one wants to talk about death—let alone suicide—but not acknowledging that it exists only perpetuates and exacerbates the pain we try so hard to ignore. avoidance of the subject in general. Others might not know what to say or how to offer support, but if we keep evading the discomfort of this topic, we will only perpetuate the stigma surrounding it. After years of attempting to privately and silently cope, I decided to attend a Survivors of Suicide support group at the beginning of this semester. The group meets every other Thursday in a preschool classroom on the second floor of the Grace Episcopal Church in Medford. During my first meeting I spoke only a few times, but the tremendous reprieve I felt after saying out loud to the group, “my mom killed herself ” rivaled what I’ve gained from the copious amounts of individual therapy I have received since high school. The external reasons for why I don’t speak aloud about my loss were not relevant in this group, and my internal need to speak out was realized. The other week someone in the group shared her overwhelming feelings of hopelessness when faced with the prospect of having to “rethink her better” after her husband’s death. His suicide had sapped all her energy, and she was unsure of what her new normal would look like. Her words resonated deeply with me. My mom’s suicide reshaped my entire psyche in a way that made it impossible to go back to the person I was before that foggy summer morning in 2012. This is a fact that I refused to believe until very recently. In the aftermath of my mom’s death, the very thought of tackling the ques-

tions I was left with was so daunting that I chose to avoid them entirely. I ignored the violence of my mom’s death in the same way that society tries to avoid discomfort. I attempted to circumvent instability by denying the trauma of my loss, but cheating my way to my “better” only kept me from achieving a true sense of normalcy and stability. Telling people that my mom died is not the same thing as telling people that she killed herself. My mom’s death was not passive, nor was it peaceful; it was active and violent and full of complex emotions. By not giving myself credit for experiencing this type of loss, I was denying myself the chance to overcome it. It’s been three years since my mother died, and I am still figuring out how to live. I have struggled with my own depression; I have wrestled with unhealthy and self-destructive behaviors; I have hated myself, and I have worked to love myself. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of my mother, and some days I miss her so much I never make it out of bed. But I have managed to get to a place where the good days outnumber the bad, and this gives me hope that I am on an upward slope. It is clear to me that being quiet about my grief only compounds the pain and confusion that I am feeling, and I know there are others that are facing or have faced similar experiences to my own. When I first began writing this, I did so with the intention of making it an

anonymous article. I soon realized that anonymity would defeat the purpose of what I am trying to achieve. The goal of this article is not to change how people think about suicide or mental illness— though to be clear, a change is necessary. I want to bring to light the experience of someone who has faced the ambiguity of losing a loved one to suicide, and I hope that through reading this piece, you gain a better understanding of why creating an open dialogue around suicide is so important for those who have been touched by it. I am making the choice to publicly grieve a death that is silenced by society’s inability to confront it, and it is a decision that I hope will not only have a positive effect on me but on others as well. In the past I have been hesitant to share my experience because I feared it would come to define me. I worried that giving others this extremely personal piece of myself would only propel me further into isolation by way of embarrassment or awkwardness. The truth is, I am doing both myself and the people close to me an injustice by keeping this part of myself secret. If I do not acknowledge that this happened to me I will never fully be present. My mother’s death has shaped me, but it has not changed who I am. I may not know what my “better” looks like right now, but I do know that I won’t be able to find it if I don’t validate the exhausting process behind it. So I’m making a change, and I’m talking. O

October 26, 2015

Tufts Observer

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP

POETRY

By Julia Pappageorge 12

Tufts Observer

October 26, 2015

When I left, she dug up mementos from the archives of the attic, and placed them on the newly bare dresser. “Team Player 2007” plaque, small fortune of Sacagawea coins, a 9 year-old’s scrawly Post-Its about the sad polar bear at the zoo. A slew of cursive J’s, none just right. She pasted family photos over phantom tan lines where posters once hung. Constructing a composite. A wide window frames the same street view unending TV marathon: red brick lined by indecisive oak, Mr. Duff ’s minivan parked inconveniently in front of the trash. People walk by with their dogs they walk by holding hands he walks by kicking a stone or himself maybe both. The pale blue radiator below burns the knees of those who linger too long watching.

On the phone I tell her of my swelling world. You always loved to move around she recalls. My daughter, so good. She is so fast. She was so quick to leave. I miss you she wants me to say but doesn’t ask, knowing that I don’t. When I am away, she visits the space each morning, regulars get in for free. The untouched bed an artifact preserved in September. Sleep-crinkled sheets of excitement remain a static installation. She chooses to leave them that way. She peers out now, coffee cup kept close. The street is still red oak trees in position, now naked. Mr. Duff ’s car in its (un)usual spot. A strange comfort in knowing what she’ll see. Then she thinks of me somewhere and her palms and knees begin to blister, itching but she doesn’t notice. ART BY NINA HOFKOSH-HULBERT

FAC E TO FAC E FROM TOP LEFT: ALISON GRAHAM, KRISTIANA JORDAN, ALISON GRAHAM, HAYLEY OLIVER-SMITH, RYAN JOHNSON, KATHARINE PONG, MOIRA LAVELLE, KRISTIANA JORDAN, ALISON GRAHAM

October 26, 2015

Tufts Observer

FROM TOP LEFT: EVAN COOK, SOPHIE MARTIN, KRISTINA CHU, HAYLEY OLIVER-SMITH, ELENA BELL, MOIRA LAVELLE, ALYSSA ANTMAN, SOPHIE MARTIN, ERIC SYNDER

Tufts Observer

October 26, 2015

POETRY

when they asked for your time and place of birth i lied. broken stereo clocks glow halogen in backseats of minivans, and crimson drips down thighs all the same. you came out of me with inkpool eyes wide open. i fell asleep on a highway overpass cradling your buddha head in my hands. six years pass. only my wilting hourglass body silently measures time. i am cracked fingernails, brassiere falling from sharp shoulder blades. but i’ve come looking bright-eyed just for you. “mama, who’s left their wristwatch on the counter, whose pocketknife lays underneath the mattress?” shh, never mind, never mind. withdrew you from catholic school the next morning when you puked all over the nativity scene.

twenty two years later, you still need me here to tell you, “sometimes even the clouds shiver from the wetness of their own stomach fluid.” you look like a baby warthog suckling on my chest. and when dawn rises, i will part my dirty hair down the center while you stare at my pale, freckled slabs of flesh washed in northern lights, wishing you could come back into the womb.

dusk falls, and this waning moon casts floodlights on the slums of our eden. you tell me, “all i want is to fall asleep in a revolving chain of humans where everyone is both simultaneously holding someone and being held.” i know about the hollowness of carcinogen mornings, searching for dandelion between sidewalk cracks. oedipus blinded himself with pins, but i birthed you with inkpool eyes starless as the afterlife. now you are the only one carving notches into my bedframe.

ART BY OGUL GIRGIN

October 26, 2015

Tufts Observer

OPINION

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRIGGER WARNINGS By Kari McNeil

n the midst of an uproar about the destruction of conversation and the limitedness of being politically correct, I support trigger warnings. Because of general miseducation about mental illness, trigger warnings have become equated to excuses in the eyes of the entitled. They argue that these warnings prevent learning by letting people leave a situation and thus destroy dialogue about a topic. In reality, trigger warnings promote education by allowing survivors to have a voice and by demonstrating the emotional reality of trauma. Opponents of trigger warnings also assert that trigger warnings coddle people who need to grow, and that survivors should be exposed to reality. Not only is this clinically false, but it is a claim made by those who are privileged enough to have not undergone trauma and have no experience in the subject. Survivors have lost

Tufts Observer

control in their lives, and trigger warnings are one tool that may help them cope with the horrors they have experienced. The words “trigger warning” have lost their meaning and now are a mysterious, almost taboo phrase. But a trigger warning is just what it sounds like: a warning of something that may trigger a flashback or physiological symptoms stemming from past trauma, often sexual assault, abuse, or other violence. Trigger warnings exist for people in all stages of the healing process, as every individual recovers at their own pace. Trigger warnings, in their most basic purpose, allow time for a person to bring coping skills to the forefront of their mind and have them ready for use. Coping skills are methods a person uses to manage feelings of extreme distress, and range from breathing exercises to grounding techniques. They can also include removing

oneself from a situation. In concrete terms, a trigger warning is merely a sentence or so at the beginning of an article, video, or other media. In an academic setting, they can appear as written or verbal warnings when going over syllabus for a class. That there is such an overarching misunderstanding of trigger warnings is a good part of why they receive such negative responses. Because of the ignorance around trauma and mental health, people now view trigger warnings as something they are not intended to be. They are seen as enabling someone who is overly emotional or lazy, not helping someone with a serious illness. Mental illnesses like panic disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder are viewed as exaggerated forms of sadness or stress. But there is no comparison between feeling upset, or having even an extreme sympathy, about a horrible experience, and having the life-changing symptoms of PTSD. In the same way that just being sad about something doesn’t make it traumatic, being angry about, or even hurt by, politics or religion is a far cry from experiencing a panic attack. Trigger warnings are not an excuse for people to refuse to talk about things they do not want to talk about because it is difficult, controversial, or even just goes against their beliefs. Trigger warnings are mechanisms for survivors to use to keep themselves safe. If a survivor does need to remove them self from a situation, it is because their wellbeing is at stake. People who oppose trigger warnings argue that they prevent learning and discussion about crucial topics. But whose learning are they concerned about? If it is the survivor’s, then leaving a class is hardly skipping out on learning when the individual may have lived through the experience being discussed. People who have not experienced trauma need to learn about the reality of its emotional side by

October 26, 2015

ART BY TESS DENNISON

OPINION

hearing first hand accounts or watching graphic portrayals, but trauma victims do not. If the concern is for the public’s education, this attitude is still misguided. Opponents argue that trigger warnings take the most valuable voices out of the conversation by letting survivors to skip out on discussions. College is a time to grow intellectually and emotionally, and trigger warnings supposedly are destroying this environment by being “intellectually lazy.” But in reality, trigger warnings actually allow some trauma victims to participate in the conversation because they have had time to prepare for it. Conversation is not going to be constructive when a trauma survivor is experiencing panic. Their voice can only be heard when their body and mind are ready. The idea behind trigger warnings is not to censor topics or hide subjects that are difficult to process, but the exact opposite. Warnings even support having more discussion about topics that can be dark and uncomfortable by helping limit the re-traumatization of survivors and giving them a chance to speak. Not only do trigger warnings facilitate learning in an academic way by possibly creating a safer space for the survivor, but their presence also opens up a whole other discussion on mental health and the emotional side of trauma. It lets others know that these experiences are real to people, and not just something they will hear about in theory. Emotional topics are often taught in clinical terms, or as subjects that only exist in the lives of people unlike oneself. Seeing a trigger warning signifies that this is untrue and that there could very well be people affected by the topic in the same room. This discussion is just as important, or more so, than academic learning about this subject. Theoretical, removed learning gives facts, and the only way of really understanding how to help people in these situations, or even just address this topic, is to know the reality of it. Even more essential than the idea that trigger warnings actually facilitate learning is the fact that people who’ve experienced traumatic things that others have not do

Those who oppose trigger warnings for any reason are asserting a privilege that not everyone has.

not have a duty to teach others at their own expense. Despite the necessity of educating the general public, there is no situation that warrants putting learning before the well-being of a survivor. Any teaching a survivor does needs to be on their own terms, and it is the duty of everyone else to make a space where this is possible. Survivors are not here for the benefit of the privileged, and though the ignorance of the privileged may be a price that will be paid, it is a small one in comparison to the pain of trauma victims at having to expose themselves again. Another argument of those who oppose trigger warnings is that they coddle young people who need to develop and grow. How does one equate helping someone who has experienced horrific events with pampering a spoiled child? These opponents are insinuating that it is the job of schools, or the world in general, to decide what is best for trauma victims who have experienced something that most people could not even imagine. By arguing that trigger warnings coddle, people are suggesting that by exposing a survivor to stimuli that bring up emotions of their past trauma, the survivor will eventually get used it and move on. But this twisted suggestion is not in any way how exposure therapy works. Exposure therapy is specifically tailored process that only can be facilitated by a therapist, and is not even beneficial to some survivors. More importantly, it is not up to strangers at all to decide what is healthy; it is for mental health professionals and for the individual. The audacity of implying that a person of power and privilege gets to determine

how a survivor recovers is outrageous. The job of people in power is to support what a survivor decides, and trigger warnings are a way of letting the survivor control the situation. There is such hypocrisy in using the argument that trigger warnings are overly considerate, in that they coddle a survivor, and yet also arguing that being exposed to trauma inducing stimuli is a therapeutic approach. Those who oppose trigger warnings for any reason are asserting a privilege that not everyone has. Only survivors have the right to say what is helpful for them. They have burden enough without the unjust pressure of sharing their experience, being forced into re-traumatization, or having people pretend to help them with claims of what is best. Furthermore, trigger warnings are such a small way of helping survivors that it is appalling that they are an issue. Where is the focus on sexual assault education, reduction of stigma surrounding abuse or domestic violence, and funding of resources like crisis centers? In the end, we have trigger warnings for flashing lights for people with epilepsy, and yet we might not have them for trauma survivors. In the end, I need trigger warnings. O October 26, 2015

Tufts Observer

CAMPUS

IS IT ONLY IN MY HEAD? Social Anxiety at Tufts By Sarah Nechamkin

t’s 2:45—class has just ended and campus is abuzz. It’s a beautiful day on the Quad, but you can’t focus on the golden leaves and the freshly-cut grass because you’re caught amidst a sea of faces passing by—some familiar, some not, all judging. There’s that kid you met during freshman orientation—do you say hi? You can’t tell if he sees you. He doesn’t wave. You thought he never liked you. And there’s that guy that you met at a frat party last weekend. You’re having a bad hair day. He definitely thought you were awkward. Ugh, why were you so weird with him? These are the types of negative thoughts that plague all of us. However, for people with social anxiety these thoughts become incessant and cause physical discomfort. And for many college students, particularly at Tufts, this is their reality. “It’s paralyzing,” says Will Hodge, a freshman who has overcome his social anxiety disorder through psychotherapy. “You overanalyze every single mannerism, every single body movement that someone does. You know it’s stupid, you have no concrete evidence, but you still think, ‘I know they hate me.’ It makes you feel distant. It makes you feel like you’re not really there.” Judging by the numbers, anxiety among college students is on the rise. Although it is true that this increase could be influenced by a rising awareness of mental health disorders and a disappearing stigma, the numbers are concerning. NBC News reported that a 2010 study of 63,700 college students found that five times as many

Tufts Observer

October 26, 2015

young adults are dealing with high levels of anxiety as they were in the late 1930s. The American College Health Association said nearly one in six college students has been diagnosed with or treated for anxiety within the last 12 months. At Tufts, according to Julie Jampel, Director of Training and Continuing Education Director at Tufts’ Counseling and Mental Health Services, about 30 percent of students who attend Counseling and Mental Health Services report experiencing anxiety. Though the exact definition of social anxiety is debated, experts generally agree that the disorder is characterized by irrational negative thoughts surrounding social situations that interfere with one’s everyday life. It doesn’t discriminate; it can affect both the introvert who hides out in their dorm room on Saturday nights and the social butterfly who seems to know everyone on campus. Coping mechanisms range from avoidance of social situations to surrounding oneself with people to counteract internal fears of being disliked. “Even if I find other people that like the same thing,” says freshman Joseph Scott, “I find it difficult and somewhat draining to try and extend a conversation.” “For me, it’s more of an obsession with social settings than a fear of them,” says sophomore Ian Malone. He mentions the “Tufts 500”—a term used by some to describe the portion of the Tufts population that consistently goes out to local bars and fraternities. “Some of these people mask their social anxiety—just because you see

someone out all the time or they make themselves seem like they’re really cool on social media doesn’t mean they’re not internally anxious. Actually, as with me, it’s often this preoccupation with social spaces that promotes anxiety.” Many students I spoke cited social media as another platform for their anxieties. With Facebook, Instagram, and the like defining our generation, there is an unparalleled pressure on individuals to construct an identity that not only reflects, but also, and more importantly exceeds who they really are. For students with social anxiety, this pressure can become overwhelming.

Social anxiety doesn’t discriminate; it can affect both the introvert who hides out in their dorm room on Saturday nights and the “social butterfly.” “I was looking through my pictures from Homecoming on Facebook and I started to worry about whether I am tagged in enough, whether I look good, what image I’m trying to

ART BY EVA STRAUSS

CAMPUS

project. I shouldn’t be thinking those things,” says Lorenza Ramirez, a sophomore. Sophomore Sayaka Koga adds that social media heightens her anxiety surrounding socioeconomic status. “I don’t have any glitzy vacation photos to post on Instagram. I don’t have these beautiful fancy new items to say, ‘look at what I have.’” “Here at Tufts,” Koga continues, “people are way more privileged than the rest of the country. Coming here is really an eyeopener because you see so many people not worrying about money so much. I work to help put myself through college. I don’t have a credit card that I can just swipe whenever I need it. It’s so hard to admit that. I don’t want people to feel sorry for me, I don’t want people to make assumptions about me based on my socioeconomic class.” Feelings of anxiety can be exacerbated in social spaces where money is necessary. When friends want to go out for dinner in Boston, get $8 drinks at a local bar, or use apps like Uber, there is pressure to shell out money—if you have the means. Given the student body at Tufts, social spaces are often predominantly white, which can worsen social anxiety of students of color. When students of color approach Tufts Counseling, they are presented with

a staff containing only a few counselors of color. An important part of treating social anxiety is finding someone one can connect with, and working with someone of a similar identity can be vital. These are trends affecting all college students; however, it is worth asking whether there is something deeper pervading Tufts’ campus culture. Tufts students are high achievers in and out of the classroom. Like most college campuses, the Tufts social scene is made up of groups that vary from fraternities to a cappella troupes, sports teams to culture clubs. Students often enter college with the desire to carve out their own niches and avoid the loneliness that can come with being on their own for the first time. However, at schools like Tufts, prominent club culture can create pressure for some who feel that they don’t fit into one particular clique. For many students struggling with anxiety, the sheer amount of extracurricular activities that are available at Tufts—and the perception that everyone is hyper-involved— is enough to stimulate stress. Malone notes that the selective nature of popular groups like Tufts Dance Collective (TDC) and the Rez, where an extensive personality-based application process determines employment,

adds to a sense of campus-wide exclusivity, which can exacerbate anxieties. However, these tight-knit groups can be a source of support for students in them. “For me, FOCUS really lowered my social anxiety coming into college because due to that concentrated week I already had a group of 10 pretty good friends. I absolutely adore my FO-Fam, but I might have just gotten lucky with really good people.” Hodge now feels like he has people he can rely on, whether for a quick meal or a heartto-heart. Hodge found success with psychotherapy during high school using the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) model, designed to actively change negative thoughts in order to affect behavior. But are Tufts students who struggle with social anxiety finding similar relief on campus? “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to [treating] social anxiety,” says Jampel. The Counseling and Mental Health Services at Tufts provides other methods of treating social anxiety, such as talk therapy for students, as well as a variety of support groups and workshops. Students can also be referred to meet with on-campus prescribers who advise students about medication. But due to resource constraints, the Counseling Center only provides therapy to students for one semester before referring them to costly off-campus mental health centers if needed, which can be a source of financial stress. This temporary support can present a challenge for students with anxiety, preventing them from fully opening up. So, too, can the lack of racial and other forms of diversity among counselors prevent some students from finding support from Tufts Counseling. Therapists also vary widely in approach, and shifting to new models may halt students’ progress. College breeds an independence that often masks loneliness. While we may have many acquaintances listed in our phone contacts, we might feel like we only know a handful, or none at all. It may be especially difficult for students with social anxiety to avoid this sense of loneliness. Maybe once we as a campus begin to discuss the prevalence of social anxiety and how we as a student body contribute to it, we can begin to lessen the social pressures that haunt all of us. O October 26, 2015

Tufts Observer

ARTS & CULTURE

FREEDOM FROM FEAR: Refugees and Art in Jordan By MT Snyder

Tufts Observer

October 26, 2015

PHOTOS BY MT SNYDER

ARTS & CULTURE

treetlights lining Duar Paris, a city square in the center of Amman, Jordan, illuminated mixed martial arts performances, street artists painting murals, and a man on stilts strolling down the sidewalk. Kazdara, Amman’s first annual art walk, drew in thousands of performers, artists, and spectators this month. In a nation known as a haven of stability within a volatile region, Jordan has also recently gained a reputation as a haven for artists, developing a community and spaces for people to display their creativity. But unlike the robust art scenes of many countries, Jordan’s is different. With significant populations of refugees from Palestine, Iraq, and Syria, the creativity of refugees colors and defines the artistic community in Jordan. Art offers them not only freedom of expression but freedom from fear and a method to confront the trauma they have faced in their lives. Refugee artists from all over the Middle East have come to Jordan to contribute both fine and urban art forms, especially with the recent exodus of artists from Syria. Shermine Sawalha, an organizer of Kazdara, described the influence of fine arts from Syria as a result of the Syrian civil war. Now, 80 to 90 percent of professionally trained Syrian artists have left Jordan and found work in Europe, according to Sawalha. Nonetheless, the Syrian artists who have settled permanently in Jordan have had a visible impact. One artist in particular is Bu Kulthoum, an Amman MC and producer whose hiphop work has gained popularity among Jordanian youth. In the passionate lyrics of “Oum Wselna,” Kulthoum raps of Damascus—the city that captured his heart, the city that mothered him, the city that he mourns. Kulthoum’s depictions of displacement and fear of persecution in his homeland ring true for many in Amman. For many Jordanians and Jordanian artists, the recent influx of Syrian refugees is simply another phase of the continuous cycle of refugees entering the country. Approximately 629,000 Syrian refugees currently reside in Jordan. 81,500 of these refugees live in the Za’atari refugee camp, making it the fourth largest city in the country. Refugees are nothing new to Jordan— the country has been a host to Palestinians since the 1940s, a group that currently makes up 18 percent of Jordan’s population.

Recent wars in Iraq have also contributed to large numbers of Iraqis seeking refuge in Jordan. According to a United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNCHR) report, approximately 30,000 Iraqi refugees are registered in Jordan. As Sawalha said, “this country is based on refugees.” All of these refugees share one defining characteristic—fear. The UNHCR’s definition of a refugee requires that a refugee has a “well-founded fear of persecution” in the place from which they are fleeing. On both subjective and objective levels, this fear is a central theme of the art that refugees are creating in Jordan. Art can serve as a conduit for therapeutic healing from traumatic experiences, as well as a medium through which refugees are able to communicate their fears to the world. Kuzey Atari, a coordinator at the Collateral Repair Project in Amman, said, “The arts are an easy way for them to express

Art can serve as a conduit for therapeutic healing from traumatic experiences, as well as a medium through which refugees are able to communicate their fears to the world. what they are really feeling. Sometimes it’s easier for them to express their feelings through arts more than to talk about it.” In his experiences working with Syrian refugees, Atari found that drawing and art lessons provided the medium necessary for many refugees to begin healing from their past experiences, which are often considered shameful and taboo to talk about. NGOs and international organizations have supported the development of art projects that address the needs of refugees in Jordan. Awareness and Prevention through

Art (aptART), an international NGO that Sawalha partners with, works on community engagement projects in the Za’atari refugee camp to create wall murals. Typically, coordinators spend five days in the community creating a concept behind the mural and giving workshops for refugees, and all community members collaborate in painting the mural’s background. Last month, the Goethe Institute hosted the Forum on Culture and Humanitarian in Amman. Members of International Relief Development—a nonprofit that creates relief programs—spoke about their community-geared initiatives in the Middle East, which focus on individual and community identity preservation for refugees. IRD provides training and funding to empower refugees to create their own community project ideas. These projects work to reclaim refugees’ threatened culture through a safe means of expression. IRD is not alone in their vision. Mercy Corps, an international NGO that helps those affected by crises, has also been involved in projects that help refugees engage with their new communities. Both IRD and Mercy Corps spearheaded projects in refugee camps and areas with high refugee populations in Jordan, focusing on community representation and building connections between camps and outside communities. Although these projects and organizations provide a creative outlet for refugees within their reach, the situation for the city’s numerous refugees remains bleak. “[Refugees] feel marginalized, generally speaking, even by humanitarian assistance by international organizations,” said Domenique Sherab, Project Officer of the Refugee and Migration Unit at ARDD. With international support in decline, the majority of refugees in Jordan live in urban areas and struggle to survive, as they are not legally permitted to work in Amman. Art offers one method of coping with this reality for refugees who are fortunate enough to have access to resources and materials, but it is far from the widespread policy changes that are needed to fully address the needs of refugees. From his experience working with refugees in Za’atari and Amman, Atari said, “There is one goal that they all have in common—freedom. [Through] the arts,” he said, “they can begin to find it.” O October 26, 2015

Tufts Observer

ARTS & CULTURE

Tufts Observer

October 26, 2015

ART BY ADRIAN DICORATO

ARTS & CULTURE

sorority terrorized by a masked red devil. Foursomes with vampires and humans. A demon with a drill bit dildo. The horror genre in American television isn’t holding back. Representations of sexuality and sexual violence are fundamental elements of the most popular and frightening shows on networks today, and these shows are amassing attention. Over 12 million viewers watched the premiere of American Horror Story: Hotel in October, and seven mil-

has sex with her boyfriend will end up dead, as will teenagers who pick up deranged hitchhikers.” But now, female sexuality is portrayed in even more graphic and violent forms than it was in classic horror films. “[Today], you see an amplified focus on violence towards women’s bodies, and women as victims of sexual violence. Repeatedly, the stories we are told follow a similar structure, and they always involve a denuded female body that is a victim of sexual violence,” said Tufts Associate Pro-

HORROR’S BLOODY UNION lion saw the Scream Queens pilot within three days of its airing in September. Formerly dominated by the big screen, horror as a genre has made a successful shift to television, making a name for itself as “anthology horror.” Sex is at the core of its essence as a genre, according to Sam Kitchens, a Tufts junior teaching a Perspectives seminar about horror films. He says this combination of sex and horror isn’t totally new: “slasher” films of the 1970’s and 1980’s frequently featured the murders of young, sexually active women. Slasher films demonstrate a puritanical view of female sexuality and morality—the idea that young women having sex deserved to be punished. “People say that slasher films are just about seeing a bunch of teenagers getting killed, but they’re also featuring teenagers who are being sexually active, being sexual creatures, and society is saying, ‘This is not okay, you are responsible for the breakdown of our society,’” said Kitchens. Sharon Begley, Senior Health and Science Correspondent at Reuters, wrote in The Daily Beast that “an almost Victorian moral code” is present in many of these older horror films. In these films, she says, “you can be pretty sure that the girl who

By Claire Selvin

fessor of Anthropology Sarah Pinto. Viewers of the premiere of American Horror Story: Hotel witnessed not only a rape scene with a faceless demon as the assailant, but also a foursome between two vampires and two humans, an act that culminated in two murders and excessive gore. Scream Queens, though lacking the graphic nudity presented in American Horror Story, abounds in sexual innuendoes, homophobic dialogue, and allusions to necrophilia. Pinto says today’s pervasive combination of horror and sex relates to the Freudian idea of “the return of the repressed”—the notion that the things that scare us continue to haunt and revisit us, even as we repress them. “Those films and their structures evoke a deep psychological process. The thing being repressed is sex, it is desire, and it emerges as something horrifying in these sort of domestic places that are supposed to be sexless.” She says the entertainment industry has and will continue to combine sex and horror because they know it’s profitable. “I think there is also a more commercial explanation that these things sell, and movie makers understand that images

conflating violence and sex make a lot of money,” she said. The horror film industry reeled in over $254 million in 2014, and has already made that much in ticket sales in 2015. Tufts Psychology Professor Keith Maddox addressed another aspect of horror’s appeal: the shock factor. “Human beings are often intrigued by events that are novel and unexpected because they go against our normal everyday expectations about people and their behavior. Horror films are great examples of providing people with highly irregular and unexpected events in a reasonably safe environment at home or in a theater,” Maddox said. But this kind of media—especially when it is highly sexualized—does not exist without controversy. President of the Parents Television Council Tim Winter advocated for an advertisers’ ban on American Horror Story: Hotel, according to Cinema Blend’s website. Winters said that the show displays an “unbelievably explicit combination of sex and violence” and that it “is the most vile and shocking content…on TV.” While this conservative critique focuses on the existence of violence and sex in media, a feminist critique, according to Pinto, pushes back against the way that narratives around sexual violence are shaped. One narrative that appears over and over in the modern horror genre is revenge murder in response to sexual violence. Films like I Spit on Your Grave (2010) and Teeth (2007) depict a female protagonist seeking out male victims after instances of assault. Pinto said that these stories can glorify violence rather than condemn it. “If the revenge narrative is simply the vehicle for allowing us to wallow in images of violence, especially violence against women, then I’m not sure how we should even understand that vehicle. I’m often uncomfortable with the excessive representation of violence against women, even in those narratives about women taking revenge,” she said. But with millions watching consistently, it seems the entertainment industry will only continue to spew the sex, blood, and gore at the expense of women. O October 26, 2015

Tufts Observer

TECH & INNOVATION

MESSAGE FAILED TO SEND

For some it’s a luxury; for others, a lifeline By Gabby Bonfiglio

Last week, I put my phone in the washing machine. Two minutes later, after the frantic full-body pat down we give ourselves when a phone’s location is in question, I realized. I sped down the hallway in slippers and grabbed my roommate, who made the swift decision to unplug the washing machine. Then would have come the opening, the moment of relief, except there wasn’t one. Washing machines lock midcycle. We called Tufts Facilities, who said they couldn’t help us while they audibly laughed into the phone, and then we called the washing machine company. The woman in Dallas on the other end of the line told me she would send help, and it came, two days later. By then my phone was ice cold, waterlogged to the point that you could see a drop of Hodgdon washing machine water beneath the camera lens. “I’ve never seen this before,” said the man whose job it is to unlock washing machines.

Tufts Observer

October 26, 2015

He had never seen a phone in a washing machine before, but in my two days of waiting, I had experienced a loss familiar to many college students. Our phones are our connections to our world—a new world, where our loved ones are never more than a touch, a snap, a press away. For college students and millennials, phones allow relationships to last and strengthen over distance, and thus we become bound to them. The loss of my world caused actual, physical pain. As I was thinking about the ways in which our phones enable us to maintain connections, I started to consider a group of people whose relationships are even more dependent on developing technology. Modern refugees from war-torn areas of the world such as Syria, Colombia, Iraq, the Congo, and Afghanistan are becoming increasingly dependent on cell phones. With over 50 million people displaced globally, according to the UNHCR, this group of consumers and their unique needs represent a significant and growing

part of our human population. Their interactions with cell phones, then, highlight both the universal aspects and the disparities or inequalities in our human struggle for safety and love. Often, refugees departing their home countries will acquire a cell phone and then acquire a SIM Card as soon as they enter a new country. Using their phones, refugees are able to access networks of assistance, mostly through Facebook, where other refugees will post and update safe routes, transportation, and shelter. Also through Facebook, refugees can access and contract smuggling groups who will bring them into Europe with their consent. These groups’ Facebook pages often boast bold names like “Smuggling into EU,” according to the New York Times. And on most phones, refugees can access a navigation system to figure out how to get where they hope to go next. These resources can be determinants of a refugee’s success in reaching the safe places they want to go, but a cell phone

ART BY KAITLYN JOHNSON

TECH & INNOVATION

can also become a refugee’s world—a new world defined by technology, where refugees can use their phones to maintain relationships, but from a distance. Though they may have a camera roll of familiar faces, their everyday lives may only contain the faces of strangers. For many refugees, phones allow relationships to exist at all. Meghan Quill, a co-leader of the Tufts University Refugee Assistance Program (TU-RAP) told the Tufts Observer, “We work with people who may not have seen their families in many years.” TU-RAP is an organization that connects small groups of Tufts undergraduate and Fletcher students with resettled refugee families in the Boston area. These groups provide social support and other assistance as needed. “We’re just doing what we can…with what we have,” says another co-leader, Cate Klepacki. She is going this week to visit a family she once worked with, demonstrating the real, lasting, and impactful connection TU-RAP members and refugees can form. Through these interactions, the significance of technology in refugees’ lives, even once resettled, has become clear to Quill and Klepacki. Refugees use their phones to contact the people they left at home, to find out how they are and how the neighborhood is doing, as well as to keep in touch with family members who could be “anywhere in the world,” says Quill. And if a refugee loses the contact they become accustomed to, says Quill, the grief and isolation can be devastating. For a refugee still on the move, a lost phone could mean a lost cause, with few means of navigation or connection to networks.

For a resettled refugee, Quill says, “imagine calling home and the other line never picks up. You have no way of knowing what happened.” The panic after losing the ability to reach loved ones unites us across lives. For everyone, college student or refugee or both, technology forms a bridge between us and the people that we cannot physically be with. However, this pain is one of many connections between Westerners and refugees that Westerners sometimes overlook. When a picture of one Syrian refugee taking a selfie surfaced online— she looks exhausted, and in the background of the photo is the dingy she just got off—some Westerners made it clear on Twitter that their definition of “refugee” did not include someone who could afford a phone. These statements forget that this woman was just one person and not representative of all refugees, especially not most of the refugees who are resettled in the US. Similarly, a C-SPAN segment in which Americans could call in and question the former Deputy of Homeland Security revealed some public discontent with a perceived “cushy” resettlement program for refugees. According to the 1951 definition, refugees are people who have a “well-founded fear of being persecuted” due to some part of their identity and leave the country because of it. The US definition of a refugee expands this one to include people who are still within their countries with fear of persecution based on identity. Neither of these definitions contains an socioeconomic standard. Therefore, not

only do many refugees deserve the safety and love a phone provides, but many refugees can afford them—further defying the white, Western stereotype of a refugee. The double-bind imposed by this desire, that refugees have to look like they need help in order to get it, overlooks the universal humanity we share with refugees. At the same time,

For refugees, the fear of losing a phone and the love that comes with it is that much more threatening. though, it recognizes how much luckier most of us at Tufts are to live in a safe place with easy access to the people we love. I lost my phone for a week, and I was fine. I had a computer to text or Facebook message with in the meantime, and my parents paid for a new iPhone 5s. My parents are also only 300 miles away, safe in the suburbs. That’s the thing about being a white student at Tufts University who grew up comfortably—I am always fine. I even have the privilege of disliking my phone, now, as it feels like a burden, having to keep in touch with my loved ones all the time. For refugees, this love must feel that much more vital, and the fear of losing a phone and the love that comes with it that much more threatening. O

October 26, 2015

Tufts Observer

POLICE BLOTTER

Police Blotter

By Moira Lavelle

Hotung Hurl

Sunday, October 4th, 12:15 am

Officers responded to a call from Hotung CafĂŠ. They arrived to find a student vomiting during late night dining in the first floor bathroom. It is quite clear that the late night mozzarella sticks were not the cause of illness, because those things are dope. The student was being tended to by friends, who had courteously relocated the vomitter outside to await Somerville fire and EMS. They were given medical attention and taken to a local hospital.

Frisbee Fiasco

Saturday, October 10, 5:30pm

Police were dispatched to the front of health services the afternoon of homecoming. There was not one drunken student call that day. Rather they arrived to find a very sober student who had his front right tooth knocked out. He reportedly lost the tooth to a Frisbee while just hanging out and playing with his friends. TEMS did an evaluation, and the patient refused medical attention, but he was advised to see his dentist ASAP.

Smoke Show

Wednesday, Oct 14, 7:30 am

TUPD responded to a fire alarm activation in Blakeley Hall. There was no fire or smoke anywhere in the building. It appeared that instead one student had sprayed aerosol Axe deodorant all over himself while standing directly beneath the smoke detector, and that this had caused the detector to go off. The fire department confirmed that was likely the cause of the alarm--too much of that fresh axe smell.

Tufts Observer

October 26, 2015

CONRAD YOUNG

TUFTS OBSERVER SINCE 1895 www.tuftsobserver.org observer@tufts.edu @tuftsobserver

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