Issue 2 Fall 2022

MONITORING TUFTS’ SURVEILLANCE STATE

By Amanda Westlake and Edith Philip

Tufts University has used surveillance since its founding. In 1852, it started with security officers and police and has since been expanded with hundreds of security cameras, automated parking en forcement, and the monitoring of campus internet use. Some students constantly feel watched and believe security is valued over student privacy. An anonymous junior said, “It’s almost impossible to function at the university without being surveilled in some capacity.”

Surveillance has historically been used to oppress and criminalize margin alized communities. Often, this is done in the name of public safety. Surveillance methods are intertwined with the systemic racism of the criminal justice system. Lee Edelman, a professor of literature and film, said, “The issue of surveillance is always linked to this specter of crime and to the possibility of protection against crime.”

CAMERAS ON CAMPUS

Security cameras constantly record community members as they walk through entryways, stairwells, and outdoor spaces at Tufts. In 2019, the Tufts Observer report ed that the Tufts University Police Depart ment had access to footage from hundreds of cameras after the university expanded its surveillance system over the previous five years.

This September, the Tufts Daily reported that Tufts had increased the number of cameras on campus again, this time installing additional parking cameras in anticipation of the Green Line extension. Parking cameras were first implemented at Tufts in 2010 and

enforce Tufts’ parking rules by automati cally reading cars’ license plates.

Cameras increase Tufts University Po lice Department’s reach at the cost of pri vacy. Second-year dual degree student Ed Hans said, “We know that TUPD has ac cess to all the cameras that are in the dorm buildings, and I would assume they also have access to the ones surveilling where people park. It just gives them more eyes.”

In a written statement to the Observ er, Tufts’ Executive Director of Media Re lations Patrick Collins wrote, “TUPD can request access [to parking cameras] when necessary for public safety reasons.”

Tufts’ video surveillance policy dic tates how TUPD and other departments can use security camera footage. The purpose of the policy is to balance public safety with concerns for privacy. Accord ing to the policy, most video footage can be used for “official university and law en forcement purposes,” and “mobile or hid den” cameras can be used in criminal and non-criminal investigations. Parking cam eras take photos, not videos, and are not subject to the video surveillance policy.

Whenever security cameras are uti lized, the people monitoring them un avoidably view the footage with biases, which may affect who is considered a po tential threat to campus security. PhD can didate Nick Rabb, who co-teaches a new class at Tufts called “Data and Power: De constructing Surveillance,” said, “Are the white male students going to be the ones who are harmed? Probably not. It’s going to be students of color… They’ll probably have this system used against them.”

Postdoctoral researcher Desen Ozkan, who co-teaches “Data and Power” with Rabb, said institutions

often implement additional surveil lance measures when there is a per ception of danger but that these poli cies should be re-evaluated as needs evolve. Ozkan said, “Those old sur veillance measures [such as cameras] need to be checked.”

POLICE PRESENCE

TUPD uses many methods be yond security cameras to monitor

students, investigate alleged offenses, and enforce order. These surveillance methods include physically watching students, collecting data about who swipes their ID when, and keeping track of opened doors.

Police cars often drive around campus, and some students feel TUPD focuses on some areas on campus more than others. Students have noticed TUPD often parks outside the FIRST center, the identity cen ter for first-generation and low-income students. An anonymous junior explained how this feels dangerous for students as the FIRST Center supports a demographic which is primarily Black and Brown as well as undocumented students. They shared their frustrations with the hierarchy of power on campus as well, saying, “If you have a problem with TUPD, where do you go [to hold them accountable]?”

TUPD did not respond to a request for comment.

Edelman reflected on how Tufts uses surveillance to deter crime and keep rank ings high to encourage more students to apply. He stated that Tufts is a non-profit “dedicated to attempting to make its edu cational resources as available as possible to persons from all sorts of backgrounds, including disadvantaged backgrounds,” and thus, having students who can pay full tuition helps those who cannot and low crime rates encourage these students to enroll.

Edelman also spoke to the point of Black students being unfairly racially pro filed. He said, “To be Black is always to be already under surveillance. It’s to have your body always register under the rubric of threat wherever you go, and to be sus pect of criminality.” It is not a coincidence that Hans believes universities like Tufts have prison-like structures of enforcing power and maintaining order. Hans said that with prisons and universities, there are “a lot of similarities in how you have to control a population.”

Rabb said university administrations often see students through a “surveilling gaze.” According to Rabb, “One of the things that surveillance does to you is that it wants to categorize you and dehuman ize you. Then, power can be exerted on you more easily.”

Hans is uncomfortable with the TUPD presence on both Boston and Medford campuses. At the SMFA, TUPD checks the identity of everyone as they enter the building. Hans said, “They have a cop right at the entrance, [and] you can’t get in without scanning your card. You can’t just come in off the street and go to the gallery, or eat the food, or go to the art store.”

In Medford, Hans often notices TUPD driving around. He said, “I’ll just be sitting somewhere or walking, and [TUPD] will stop the car right next to me or down the street. They’ll never get out of the car… I think they’re just trying to intimidate you by stopping.”

When Hans and a group of friends wheat-pasted signs—sticking them on walls with a flour paste—with nonsense words and phrases on the Medford cam pus last fall, they didn’t expect the univer sity to be able to identify them. Hans re ceived an email shortly after the incident asking them to meet with TUPD officers. At the meeting, Hans said, “They showed me the footage of when I entered buildings and scanned my card. They have cameras on both the outside and the [inside] of the entrances… [TUPD told me] that’s how they knew it was me because I had used my card to swipe into where I lived at the time.” No other students that Hans was with were identified, presumably because they did not use their IDs.

Bao Lu, a former Tufts student, re flected on an experience with surveillance on campus. In a written statement to the Observer, he said, “We went through the back door [of Tilton Hall] that’s usually kept locked, but I guess we didn’t close it all the way. While we were sitting and chatting, TUPD pulled up with a car.” He continued to talk about how the TUPD officer interrogated them about what they were up to and if they opened the door. He recalled that the TUPD officer “mentioned that the alarm for Tilton was going off be cause of the door and they knew at their headquarters monitoring center” that the door was left open.

SURVEILLING STUDENT ACTIVISTS

Surveillance affects everybody at Tufts, but not all students are monitored equally. Some student activists say they are the targets of increased surveillance. A Students for Justice in Palestine mem ber, who wishes to stay anonymous, said Tufts SJP is monitored on campus by other students and faculty. They stressed that it wasn’t necessarily Tufts who surveilled them, but they felt Tufts does not side with them when they are being harassed.

Tufts SJP has also been made aware of surveillance by the FBI. At a meeting in September, the Office of Equal Opportuni ty notified Tufts SJP members that the FBI

had investigated their support of the Map ping Project. The Mapping Project is a con troversial project by a “multi-generational collective of activists and organizers” that has been criticized by some as antisemitic. Tufts SJP was not involved in its creation, and Tufts SJP members said OEO’s own investigation concluded that Tufts SJP did not violate any Tufts non-discrimination rules. Tufts SJP said in a written statement to the Observer, “The FBI has been a long standing force of surveillance and repres sion of social movements which they view as ‘extremist,’ from the Black liberation movement to the farm workers movement to the Palestinian liberation movement.”

Collins wrote, “Other than what has been reported in the media, the university has no information [referencing] the FBI and the Mapping Project.”

Other activist groups at Tufts have faced heightened levels of TUPD surveil lance. When Rabb was involved in orga nizing a protest last year against Raythe on, a military contractor recruiting Tufts students for jobs, Raytheon recruiters attempted to call TUPD on activists who disrupted the event. However, TUPD was already outside with the protesters.

When Rabb talked with a TUPD of ficer at the protest, he said the officer at tempted to ask questions to find out more about the protest, starting with broad questions and getting more specific. Rabb said that when TUPD does this, “They want you to give them details about your organizing. This is something that regular police officers are trained to do.”

Rabb said, “[The administration] absolutely [has] an incentive to main tain order, hold onto their power, and not be challenged by student organiza tions who want to reshape the way the university works.”

INTERNET SURVEILLANCE: IT’S TOO LATE

Concerns about surveillance at Tufts aren’t limited to the physical campus. Tufts students feel as though campus WiFi and email addresses are not secure. Pham said that it is hard to know what is private and what is public when Tufts is not transparent about its level of surveil lance, especially digitally.

For example, junior Quinn Hoerner was trying to find a movie for a class that was not available on any streaming site

they had access to. They downloaded the movie illegally on Tufts Wi-Fi, which Tufts saw and reprimanded them for. Hoerner said, “A week later, I got this email saying [I] violated the school’s use of Wi-Fi.” As a result, they had to write an essay reflecting on their actions and wrongdoings.

Other students worry about their university email accounts being moni tored. In 2016, the Observer reported that members of Tufts Labor Coalition and Tufts SJP felt as though the administra tion knew more about their protests than was publicly available. To protect their privacy, TLC began to use secure com munications systems, forgoing Tufts WiFi and university emails.

Collins said that while Tufts Wi-Fi does “create records of which Wi-Fi Ac cess Point a device connects to,” the data collected “does not include the content of communications (emails sent or received, web page content, etc.) as this information is almost universally encrypted and not viewable by anyone at Tufts.”

An anonymous student organizer often uses personal emails for organiz ing work to avoid any possibility of the university intercepting information. They

said, “We live in an age of surveillance, and there’s a culture of having to assume that you don’t have a right to privacy.”

When asked how students can pro tect themselves from digital surveillance, Professor Ming Chow, who teaches cyber security classes, had one overarching mes sage: “It’s too late.”

Chow said in a written statement to the Observer , “Even if you are so care ful with your information, someone dropped the ball and lost it.” Chow per sonally has access to a ProctorU data dump from 2020. The data includes full names, home addresses, and phone numbers of Tufts students who used the online proctoring service.

When asked how Tufts keeps stu dents’ private information safe when stored in third-party sources, Collins said, “[Tufts Technology Services] negotiates data protection requirements into the con tracts that govern the vendor’s storage and use of Tufts data.”

RESISTANCE EFFORTS

Surveillance efforts can be pervasive and overwhelming, but students are tak ing steps to resist and push back against policies and practices that disregard their privacy.

Ozkan said resisting surveillance could mean “refusing to use a Tufts email, or not walking into a [parking] garage, or wearing hats.” She said, “Or is it a bigger thing, a protest or some sort of organized collective action?”

Rabb said disrupting TUPD in small ways can be considered resistance. He said, “If TUPD comes up to you and asks you a question, and you’re like, ‘Sorry, I’m on my way to class’—that’s an act of resistance.”

Rabb also said many students are currently unaware of just how far-reach ing surveillance at Tufts is. He said a “knowledge building, awareness build ing campaign would be a huge step” in terms of combatting surveillance poli cies at the university.

Some students are pushing the uni versity to re-evaluate the way it approaches surveillance. Tufts SJP said in a statement to the Observer, “We are disheartened to see that Tufts has continued to increase the presence of security cameras across cam pus, and we hope that the Tufts commu nity will instead put their faith in commu nity care and trust and continue to build alternatives outside of policing, surveil lance, and incarceration.”

By Neya Krishnan

Tufts’ campus, printouts with the words “woman, life, freedom” written in bold, black uppercase are taped to surfaces everywhere—from the windows that lie in the entrance of Carmichael Din ing Hall to the mailbox near the crosswalk that leads to the Joyce Cummings Center. A tiny fist emerges from the letter “w” in woman, and, under those three words, “#mahsaamini” is written in a smaller font.

The posters are an attempt by Tufts students to shed light on the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman detained by Iran’s morality police on September 13 for her “inappropriate attire” at the Sha hid Haghani Expressway in Tehran, Iran’s capital. Three days later, Mahsa died in the intensive care unit of the Kasra Hospital. While an Iranian state coroner alleged that Mahsa died from an underlying illness, her family and much of Iran have instead held the police responsible for her death.

Since Mahsa’s death, protests have erupted across Iran. They started off as a

lone spark at Mahsa’s funeral in Saquez, her hometown in Kurdistan. The sparks grew into a raging fire, moving across Kurdistan and through major universities in Tehran, Rasht, and beyond, where women could be seen removing their headscarves in pow erful acts of defiance as chants of “death

to the dictator” overwhelmed the streets. Although protestors were unarmed and practicing peaceful protest, they were met with violence, and even death, at the hands of the Revolutionary Guards. As of Octo ber 4, the Iran Human Rights group has put the death toll at 154 people across Iran.

Historical context is essential in order to truly understand the cultural signifi cance of the hijab, as well as the growing protests in Iran. Neda Moridpour, an Ira nian artist, organizer, and professor at the School of Museum and Fine Arts at Tufts, wrote to the Tufts Observer, “The scarves women set on fire are their demand for an end to a history of various states’ regula tion of their appearance—be it mandatory unveiling (Westernization) or compulsory hijab (Islamization).” Moridpour’s com ment offers a unique perspective on the evolution of the hijab’s symbolism in Iran. Throughout Iran’s history, the Iranian gov ernment has made hijabs either banned or mandatory at different points in time.

IT SEEMS AS THOUGH THE SIMPLE ACT OF BEING A GIRL IN IRAN IS ONE OF BRAVERY, ONE THAT REQUIRES BEING DARING. BEING A GIRL IN IRAN REPRESENTS A RADICAL EXISTENCE.

to Moridpour, under Reza Shah’s reign in the late 1930s, unveiling represented the westernization of Iran.

under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s reign in the present, the hijab has trans formed into a representation of an absolut ist Islamized republic.

This wis reflected in Iran’s morality police, which was established in 2005 as a way of upholding Islamic morals and laws on what constitutes “proper” dress. Each president has decided the degree to which these laws are enforced; the incumbent President Raisi, known as a hardliner, has instituted several measures to keep women under a tight grip. Over the sum mer, surveillance cameras were installed across the country to assist in identifying unveiled women, and a prison sentence was introduced for all women who op posed hijab-wearing.

These protests represent the desire of women to be freed from a singular defini tion of the hijab and to have the bodily au tonomy to decide whether or not they wish to be veiled. As more and more women set their hijabs ablaze, the veil has also begun to embody the gap between the wants of the Iranian people and what the Iranian government is providing.

Reverberations from the Iran protests have been felt around the world, includ ing at Tufts. Following Mahsa’s death, the Tufts Persian Student Association (PSA) worked to increase awareness and knowl edge surrounding current events in Iran.

The PSA held a “Day of Action for Soli darity with Iranian Women” in the Joyce Cummings Center on September 29. Ac cording to an anonymous member of the PSA, “The room was filled with the sound of dozens of keyboards clacking emails to senators and representatives asking them to speak out.” Tufts students were ultimately able to convince Michelle Wu’s staff to attend a rally at Boston Common on October 1, the Global Day of Action, and deliver her statement of solidarity publically to thousands.

In a written statement to the Observer, sophomore and PSA member Tara Samimi said, “At the protest [in the Boston Com mon], a representative for Michelle Wu came out and made a statement of solidar ity which we felt was a partial win… To

see thousands of people show up, Iranian or not, to stand together and amplify the voices of the women in Iran who are being silenced, was very moving.”

While the solidarity shown by Wu’s office was inspiring, many Iranians are still wondering whether these protests will ac tually amount to change. An anonymous member of the Iranian Community in the greater Boston area said, “For many stu dents with family and friends in Iran, this is a deeply emotional issue. Just scrolling through the news and hearing about more young people, just like us, who were killed in protests, fills many with rage but also fu els our advocacy efforts… The extreme po lice violence that killed Mahsa could have happened to… our mothers, sisters, or anyone who dares to be a woman.” It seems as though the simple act of being a girl in Iran is one of bravery, one that requires be ing daring. Being a girl in Iran represents a radical existence.

Following the protests and the spread of videos on TikTok and other social me dia platforms documenting the spiraling of events, Iranian authorities have curbed access to Instagram and WhatsApp—func tionally staging an internet blackout.

Countless people have gone missing after participating in protests. Mahsa is a name we know, but for every death that garners international attention, there ex ist countless nameless faces that have been kidnapped, arrested, or killed. Four days after Mahsa’s death, Nika Shakarami, a 16 year-old Iranian teenage girl, disappeared in Tehran during protests. Nika was last

seen being chased off by security forces. Soon after, her phone was turned off. Ten days later, her family learned of her death.

Niloofar Hamedi, the reporter who broke the news on the death of Mahsa Amini, was arrested just a few days after she posted a photo of Mahsa Amini’s par ents hugging each other in a Tehran hos pital where Mahsa was lying in a coma. Hamedi’s Twitter account was also sus pended. The aforementioned member of the Iranian community said, “Nearly ev eryone in Iran has by now experienced the loss of a friend or family member to the regime’s extreme violence. This grief and [lack of a] sense of agency have united the Iranian people across provinces, subcul tures, and even [the] political spectrum.”

Moridpour shared a similar senti ment, “We are witnessing the most inclu sive feminist movement created and led by women to give voice to women from all ethnicities and religious backgrounds in Iran. The world needs to know about what’s happening in Iran, condemn the government’s violent attacks/arrests, learn from this movement, stand in solidarity with people, and be their voice. Woman, Life, Freedom.” These protests illustrate the Iranian people’s courage as they stand up for the creation of an intersectional move ment against an oppressive regime.

Moridpour also said she has “asked the Tufts community to show their sup port and solidarity by signing a letter that calls on Tufts University’s Admin istration to stand in solidarity with the people in Iran.” Other schools in the Boston area, such as the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law, have made statements of solidarity with the people of Iran. Many believe Tufts should also begin using its platform as a large university by making a similar statement standing with the women and allies who are currently putting their lives on the line to speak out for women across Iran.

Iran is facing a cultural awaken ing, and, as the same anonymous mem ber of the PSA shared, “We need Tufts University to affirm that they prioritize women’s rights to autonomy now more than ever.” O

“WE ARE WITNESSING THE MOST INCLUSIVE FEMINIST MOVEMENT CREATED AND LED BY WOMEN TO GIVE VOICE TO WOMEN FROM ALL ETHNICITIES”

growing painsgrowing pains

growing pains

By Juanita Asapokhai

I’m taller than my mother now, and it seems inappropriate for me to stand beside and see above her, for my gaze to suspend in the space between her warm head and the ceiling. She made me, wood-worked me, labored over the table of my life for 20 years, and what an insult it is to outpace her to this biological nish line. I’ve always wanted to hold her as she held me as a child—perfectly, and with no hands,; to perceive the imperceptible,; to be her all-hearing ear—a sadness-shi ing, mood-stabilizing shoulder. To do so physically has never been at the top of my priorities: she has a husband and friends and life’s many intangible, tender embraces to cushion her days—sweet music, long walks on neighborhood sidewalks that rise to meet the soles of her feet, good food, home-cooked and otherwise. When I wrap my arms around her, elbows resting like a esh necklace around her collarbone, I feel bulky and ridiculous, illtting and foolish—like a child playing mommy, and not a bigger daughter reaching for her mother in the only way she knows how. e excesses of my a ection sink to the bottom of a glass-likeglass like ice cubes. I know my neuroses are just that—my own. To the world, our relationship and its hierarchy are as apparent as her cheekbones in my face, the sketch of my body drawn out in full on her frame. One day I’ll be strong enough for her to lean into me and remain still; today I throw my arms around her like she is a otation device, and I’ve just now, in a shocking turn of events, forgotten how to swim.

STARRING: the hero with a molten amber voice tuned to the sound of something br e ak

IN WHICH: the hero boxes up their trinkets, slamming the door in a mockery of applause— a sharp-toothed staccato, triumphant, and serrated by love

YOU CAN’T: box up a melody OR swing an ax at wistful chords but you can take the dye in your hair like rust and gold, AND your laughter like the sweetest scythe, AND [exit, stage le ] wait! please. just give me back our favorite song— i only think of you in the key of b minor

IF ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE: then i am just an extra unscripted, (half-here), some Person A in your ensemble singing cast-iron harmonies to a molten amber voice [exit, stage right, pursued by the one you le behind]

Sarah Fung

PRESENTATION, 3 FOR EXECUTION

Basil Hand

One of the first acknowledgments of gender nonconformity I experienced at Tufts was a question that popped up on my Tufts’ Student Information System page. It was simple: “What title should we address you as: Mr., Mrs., or Mx.?” As mundane as that might seem, to me, a queer kid from Missouri, it meant ev erything. I expected this would be the standard for all of Tufts’ interactions with gender-nonconforming students. Unfor tunately, reality came up short. Tufts has the framework and resources to make non-binary individuals feel at ease, but the university priotizes words over taking ac tion to achieve true inclusivity. Take the housing process, for exam

were both placed in Carmichael Hall’s “all-female” wing with no gender-neutral bathrooms. On top of us worrying about typical first-year is sues, now we had to figure out what to do about housing that blatantly disre garded our needs. After a long game of email tag, the two of us finally ended up in Tilton Hall, where all the bathrooms are gender-neutral. The housing process, which claimed to be inclusive, failed my friend and me, and we had to rectify a mistake that shouldn’t have happened.

In terms of gender-inclusive spaces, bathrooms force non-binary students to do more work than their cisgender classmates. Every time I enter a build ing, I have to figure out where the near est gender-neutral bathroom is located. Some buildings make it easy with signs, but others make it exceedingly difficult. Some buildings have gender-neutral bathrooms tucked away behind walls, some have only one gender-neutral bath room located floors away from where you need to be, and there isn’t a guaran tee that the bathroom will be function ing properly. The issues don’t stop there; for students with physical disabilities, the spread out nature of these bathrooms can make them nearly impossible for a dis abled non-binary individual to use. These problems illustrate a need for multiple clearly marked gender-neutral bathrooms in every building to ensure no undue stress is placed on non-binary students.

The issues non-binary students face extend beyond architecture: there’s also archiTECHure, specifically the online identification process. Only one set of pro

nouns at a time can be selected on SIS, and your username and email require outside help to change. All Tufts identification methods are based on your birth name, and students who identify as non-binary and go by a different preferred name are deadnamed upon acceptance into the Tufts system. The SIS pronoun markers only change how automated emails are addressed to you; every semester, I have to send a “fun” email to professors before class even starts telling them I use they/ them pronouns. These processes are dif ficult both practically and emotionally for non-binary students, and one poten tial fix to this could be informing profes sors of students’ pronouns automatically using an algorithm. While some effort is made to make student identification in clusive, the lack of depth in these systems leads to an environment far from inclusive.

Outside of the Tufts administration, the inclusion of gender-nonconforming students in student organizations has been hit-or-miss. Some groups have integrated non-binary students well. A campus favor ite, TFL, once stood for “Tufts Funny La dies,” but rebranded in 2017 to be just TFL. The group advertises itself as “Tufts’ only gender minority comedy group,” and it fol lows through on this in spades. The e-board and membership consists of pronouns from all across the board, showing that rebrand ing from a women-only space to one in clusive of all gender minorities is possible.

Some groups try, but ultimately come up short. One common example is student

students. For example, campus groups with “girl,” “woman,” etc. in their names. These names might seem inclusive, but it signals to me that non-binary people are just an extension of women—women lite™. The point of identifying as non-binary means you exist outside of the binary, so group ing non-binary individuals into binary labels is an invalidation of their identities. This grouping of women and non-binary individuals also suggests that non-binary individuals who are AMAB (assigned male at birth) or masc-presenting might have more hurdles to jump if they want to feel accepted in these spaces. Women and nonbinary individuals face different strug gles of oppression and therefore deserve spaces that acknowledge they are distinct.

To some, these issues might seem small, but all of these details add to the severe pressure non-binary students face from outside the university. There has been more anti-transgender legislation passed nationwide in the last few years than ever before; states are making it impossible for people to medically transition and placing extreme measures to ensure trans women can’t compete in sports. Outside of the US, 71 countries explicitly criminalize homo sexuality and 15 do the same for transgen der folk. For some, Tufts is the only space that students feel comfortable being forth coming with their identities, and the lack of properly implemented institutional sup port can leave these students feeling like they don’t belong anywhere. Queer indi viduals are already at higher risk for men tal health concerns and suicidal ideation,

making it all the more important they feel supported at the university they call home. Transphobic students also do, un fortunately, still exist on campus. Before I even came to Tufts, another admitted student doxxed me on Twitter and made fun of my pronouns to their followers. I was terrified, and I wish I had more sup port from the university. When I reported the incident to the Office of Equal Op portunity, I was basically told, “we can’t monitor what other students do online; do you want to talk to her?” This led to a frustrating game of email tag when what I truly needed was a concrete policy to protect me from prejudice and a univer sity administrator that would take a strong stand against hate speech and transphobia.

Tufts uses they/them pronouns. Most of the Tufts student body has been wel coming and open to discussions about gender, and it’s only because of that that I feel comfortable writing this article.

I’ve always been an optimistic person, and I do think Tufts students and admin istrators are on the right track for making this campus inclusive for non-binary stu dents; they just need to think deeper. The university should ensure that students who request gender-inclusive housing are pri oritized, make gender-neutral bathrooms more obvious and accessible in all build ings, and maybe even toss in a non-binary changing room at the gym. Regarding the community, campus organizations need to have conversations with LGBTQ+ individ uals to ensure choices are made with regard to them. Instead of organizations regard ing spaces for women tossing on the “and non-binary people”, why not rebrand the name to be a gender minority space? An other idea would be to not include non-bi nary individuals but make a separate space just for them, thus avoiding any implica tions of gender invalidation. There needs to be more collaboration with the non-bi nary communitiy at Tufts overall, whether it’s about policy or semantic changes. The systems are all in place for great institu tional change; Tufts just needs to commit to creating an inclusive space that is visible and tangible for all gender identities.

While I have been discussing Tufts’ mishandling of non-binary issues, I should acknowledge that the university does con sider the needs of its non-binary students to some extent. Having gender-neutral bathrooms in almost every building and the fact that gender-inclusive housing is offered at all are both huge accomplish ments. The LGBTQ important community-building activi ties, and I recommend that any queer student engage with this lovely space. When I got doxxed, the LGBTQ Center was the first place I turned to, and I re ceived a lot of support from them. The Tufts LGBTQ-specific health services staff are also supportive people who al ways use the correct pronouns; you have no idea how thrilled I was when I found out one of the healthcare providers at

FOR SOME STUDENTS, TUFTS IS THE ONLY SPACE THAT STUDENTS FEEL COMFORTABLE BEING FORTHCOMING WITH THEIR IDENTITIES, AND THE LACK OF PROPERLY IMPLEMENTED INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT CAN LEAVE THESE STUDENTS FEELING LIKE THEY DON’T BELONG.

LIFTS, GAINS, & GROWTH

CREATING

A MORE GYM AT TUFTS

I N C L U S I V E

Walking into the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center, students encounter a myriad of machines, free weights, and people hurrying to their next exercise. To many, the Tufts gym is a place to squeeze in a workout between classes and meet ings. However, it can seem overwhelming to those who are new or don’t fit the typi cal “gym rat” persona often associated with male gym-goers. For many, fitness has morphed into an aesthetic of masculinity rather than a space for self-betterment. At the intersection between gendered divides, predatory behavior, and inaccessibility, the gym is an uncomfortable and unsafe space for many women and non-binary people.

One group of students is trying to change this reality. Recently, they started a Tufts chapter of Girl Gains to create a gender-inclusive space for those who are interested in weightlifting and fitness. Girl Gains is a national organization with college chapters across the US aimed at empowering women as they pursue their fitness goals.

Sophomore Courtney Kreitzer, cofounder and co-president of Tufts’ chap ter, explained, “I just really liked the idea [of Girls Gains] because when I first started going to the gym, I realized that

By Rohith Raman

it’s not the most safe space for gender mi norities… I was often the only woman in the weight section, and I know that this was not the most comfortable experi ence for me… I could definitely see that [Tufts] was an environment that could use Girl Gains.”

This discomfort is only amplified at a smaller school like Tufts. In describ ing the Tufts gym, sophomore Natalie Rossinow, the vice president of Tufts Girl Gains, said, “You are going to see people you know, and I think that brings about a lot of insecurities for people who are get ting into lifting for the first time, [which] is most of the time gender minorities… [Those] going there [are] feeling uncom fortable because of the looks and com ments they get.”

One important step in cultivat ing an inclusive gym community was branding Tufts’ chapter of Girl Gains to be inclusive of all gender minorities, and not just women. The national Girl Gains organization doesn’t explicitly specify this inclusion, but Tufts’ chapter felt that it was needed.

“I identify as female and non-bina ry,” said sophomore Gideon Bennett, the social chair of Girl Gains. “And I think

that the Girl Gains organization is great, but the title can be a little bit misleading and I really wanted to push and advocate to have a space for all gender minorities, not just women.”

This change has opened up the club to many more students. With close to 300 followers online and more than 65 students attending their general inter est meeting, Girl Gains has garnered support quickly. This is not only a tes tament to the club’s strong leadership, but also to students’ desire for change in Tufts’ gym culture.

“The involvement we’ve been seeing so far shows how needed this community is at Tufts… [Students have said they have] wanted to start lifting for so long, want ed to learn, or [have] been lifting… and want to see more gender minorities in the gym,” said sophomore Lauren Sylvester, co-founder and co-president of Tufts Girl Gains. “I’m excited that [this gym com munity is] starting to form.”

As the club’s traction has increased, members have begun coming up with ideas to make this community bigger. One program, Swolemates, hopes to bring more students to the gym by pairing them up with a partner.

“At the core of this club, it’s about feeling more comfortable in the gym, and that’s going to happen when [you] see friendly faces at the gym and you’re smil ing and laughing,” said Kreitzer. “[Swole mates is] basically the Marriage Pact but for providing a gym buddy… to go to the gym with, [to] feel more comfortable, [and] see a friendly face.”

Swolemates is intended to reduce the anxieties that come with going to the gym that are sometimes exacerbated by the disproportionate number of men in the space. The program, along with other events like Girl Gains Olympics, a fitness competition with games and prizes, helps the members get to know each other bet ter and is a part of Girl Gains’ mission to make a community of their own.

“[The fitness culture] is very maleoriented. The barrier to entry for girls and non-binary people is [such] that they don’t

AT THE CORE OF THIS CLUB, IT’S ABOUT FEELING MORE COMFORTABLE IN THE GYM, AND THAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN WHEN [YOU] SEE FRIENDLY FACES AT THE GYM AND YOU’RE SMILING AND LAUGHING.

feel comfortable enough to go to the gym on their own, which is why I appreciate the Swolemate program,” said sophomore Emily Pham, a new member of Girl Gains. “[Going to the gym with somebody] can be so uplifting and makes you feel a lot safer, which is the number one reason for why I joined Girl Gains.”

Another big problem is that there are knowledge gaps in terms of what exercises one should do and what the proper tech nique is when people first start out. Many people don’t feel comfortable asking for help in this male-dominated space.

“There is a lot of judgment at the gym, especially if you don’t know exactly what you are doing,” Bennett said. “It’s a very visible space, so not knowing what you’re

doing can feel really nerve-racking… It is very hard to ask for help, especially in a male-dominated environment… that is a big problem we are trying to address.” For Bennett, this means undoing the gen der divisions that exist when it comes to fitness and its culture. Girl Gains has al ready been in contact with female coaches certified in weightlifting about the possi bility of teaching their members.

As effort continues to come internally from Girl Gains, members have stressed the importance of recognition and ac countability on the part of men and those that take up more space at the gym. “Cis men have to recognize that this is an is sue… Having that acknowledgement and validation that how we feel is a real issue is a big thing,” said Rossinow.

Accountability and support from institutions are equally important to the success of Girl Gains. The Girl Gains board reached out to Tufts Community Union Senate about establishing wom en- and gender-minority-only hours at the gym. Jaden Pena, TCU president, spoke to the future of this proposal, say ing, “We thought it would be easiest if we went directly to the athletic department… they’ve been helping us plan the space, the timing, and the staffing.”

Pena continued, “What [TCU has] been doing is also researching what peer institutions do… A bunch of peer institu tions [like Harvard] have programs like this, so that’s something that is super im portant. We are dedicated and we are con fident that this is going to get done [by] the end of the month, if not [by] Novem ber, which is super exciting.”

As Girl Gains picks up traction on campus, members are excited to see what the future holds. With upcoming events like their Girl Gains Olympics as well as the possibility of separate gym hours, there is much to look forward to. “It’s just really motivating to see how many people are so supportive of it so quickly,” said Rossinow. “We hope this becomes a really big part of the Tufts community.”

WHAT INFLUENCES YOU?

baton rouge -edith / Trees, nature, my par ents, my friends, my pro fessors, books I read, movies I watch, music I listen to, journal ism -julia / Mom, sister, acoustic guitar songs, dogs, trees, cooking, david hockney, hayao miyazaki, bell hooks, los angeles -aidan / florida, cuba, my friends, my mom, my grandma, the Kardashians, Bad Bunny -emara / the art of war -ivi / Ella McConnell, golden retriev ers and other dogs and kind animals, Au drey Ashbrook, Anevay Ybañez, my grand ma, Professor Lorgia Garcia Peña, Queens, New York City, the Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora Studies Department at Tufts, the Latine community at Tufts, Audrey Jaramil lo, witches and witchcraft -liani / The book, The Third Door by Alex Bayanan! - sofia / My Mom! -william / the sound of midnight rain beating against my window -priyanka / Nature! -olivia / my grandmother, airports, caterpillars, my professors, favorite books -layla / love! family! creativity! passion! being in a city! -audrey cartoons and art! -michael / beauty and pain -ines / wong kar wai and @annalaura_art on instagram -carina and We Even Enjoy Design!

REPRESENTATIONS OF LEADERSHIP

THE OBAMA PORTRAITS EXHIBITION AT THE MFA

Bursting with color, Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of former President Barack Obama stands out against the white and blue walls of the Museum of Fine Arts. The portrait seats Obama amongst a lush and overgrown vegetal backdrop, featuring African blue lilies, chrysanthemums, and jasmine. The flowers represent Obama’s Kenyan heritage, his hometown of Chi cago, and his birthplace, Hawaii. Obama is seated with his elbows resting on his knees and each forearm crossed as he leans for ward and gazes attentively at the viewer. He dons a crisp, navy suit and white but ton-up, but he wears no tie and his collar remains slightly open.

Next to Wiley’s portrait, Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama is displayed.

By Erin Zhu

Sherald’s piece places the former first lady in a floor-length, multi-colored gown against a light blue background. Michelle Obama is seated, the skirt of her geometrically patterned gown resting in gentle folds around the base of the painting. The portrait palette is minimalistic, with a light blue hue that fills the background. There are tinges of red, pink, and yellow slivers within the gown. Like many of Sherald’s portraits, Michelle Obama’s complexion is depicted through a grisaille, or gray-scale, technique.

Wiley and Sherald’s portraits contain a sense of natural life and sincerity, presenting themselves as distinct amongst the continuum of Eurocentric presidential portraits. Sophomore Tula Simon said, “I think that both artists did a really great job of not just capturing the former president and first lady’s likeness but also… cultivating the atmosphere in their pieces that reflected the change that the Obamas

sought to foster in our country.” Simon continued, “I think that both portraits were truly iconic and, in my opinion, embodied the changing nature of power that the Obamas represent.”

When Wiley’s and Sherald’s portraits of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama were revealed to the public in 2018, the portraits received a level of public attention and media coverage unmatched by former Presidential portraits. In addition to the more contemporary methods utilized for the paintings, the attention was also generated from the fact that Wiley and Sherald were the first African American artists to be commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery for Presidential and First Lady portraits.

Dr. Kelli Morgan, a Professor of the Practice and Director of Curatorial Studies at Tufts as well as a curator at the MFA, spoke of the significance of these portraits. “Barack and Michelle Obama were these powerhouses that really represented… Black brilliance and Black genius and Black accomplishment,” Morgan said. “They represented a type of Black upper middle class or Black, sort of elite, intellectualism that a lot of Americans didn’t think existed… Symbolically, the power of [the] visual symbol that he and Michelle represent… is a huge thing.”

Oftentimes, the act of portrait painting is a process of immortalizing the subjects. By depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as symbols and ideals, Wiley and Sherald take back the instruments of representation and combat the disparaging depictions of Black individuals found in art history. Paintings such as John L. Krimmel’s The Quilting Frolic (1813) and William Sidney Mount’s Farmers Nooning (1836) are instances of representations by white artists that have ridiculed and stereotyped Black subjects. Krimmel depicts the Black subjects with caricatured features, exaggerating their mouths and emptying them of any individuality. Mount, an anti-abolitionist, depicts the reclining Black figure as resting

under the sun in contrast to the white workers who sit upright in the shade, playing into racist stereotypes. Magazine illustrations have also participated in contributing to racist tropes, stripping Black subjects of individuality and taking the power of representation out of their hands. Preventing individuals from engaging in self-representation is a critical but often overlooked act of power, and subjects marginalized communities to the stereotypes created by others.

Wiley is an example of a Black artist who has actively combated this legacy of racist Western art. He rose to artistic prominence for his work depicting Black subjects in poses reminiscent of traditional Western portrait paintings. By having his models assume poses traditionally reserved for heroes and leaders in the European canon, Wiley places his Black subjects in positions of power and wealth, challenging traditional representations of Black and Brown young men. Morgan said, “There is a particular essence of Blackness that comes out, and that’s respected, when [Black people] represent one another.” Morgan continued, “It’s putting us back where we always were, giving us space in places that didn’t necessarily acknowledge how central our ancestors were to those moments in history.”

Simultaneously, Wiley remains conscious of his predecessors. President Barack Obama assumes the demeanor and poses found in previous presidential portraits. In addition, the wooden revival armchair that Barack Obama sits in recalls the one present in George Healy’s Abraham Lincoln. While the vegetal motifs and saturated color palette make Wiley’s portrait stand out distinctly from former Presidential portraits, familiar visual cues cement Barack Obama’s legacy within the continuum of the American presidency. “It’s much more approachable,” said freshman Liv Jordan. “He’s sitting at your level and looking at you, and it feels like he’s someone you could talk to.”

However, the arrival of the portraits in Boston also raises questions about the role institutions play in representing Black artists and the role museums have historically played in excluding members of the Black community. The portraits are available for viewing in the MFA

until October 30, 2022. Organized by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the MFA is the seventh and last stop of a tour that has traveled to Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, and San Francisco. All of these cities have significant Black communities but are deeply segregated. Boston in particular is an illuminating example; the MFA is located in the neighborhood of Fenway where only five percent of residents are African American. On average, 23 percent of Boston’s residents are African American. Additionally, the Boston metropolitan area is the nation’s seventh most racially segregated. While Wiley and Sherald’s portraits are triumphs, Professor Morgan noted how museums often try to capitalize off of diversity efforts. “I call it the culture of unbridled ignorance,” Morgan said. “Our museums are also trend followers… They jump on the trend, [that] diversity, equity, inclusion, have become. The exhibition can be a really rich way to heal some past wounds, to really give grace and honor to the communities of, you know, Roxbury and Dorchester and Jamaica Plain. But that’s not actually what they’re using the exhibition to do.” All of the cities included in the portraits’ tour are sites with deep histories of racial injustice, segregation, and disregard for Black artistic accomplishments. Placing the portraits in an institution with a history of racial and economic discrimination undermines the power of these portraits.

The MFA has experienced increased scrutiny for racial discrimination following an incident where a group of Black middle schoolers was subject to racist remarks during a field trip. In response, the MFA has been undergoing efforts to reevaluate its practices and employee training. The MFA has taken efforts to diversify the artists and artwork that they represent, as shown through their exhibitions “Portraits of Leadership” and “Touching Roots: Black Ancestral Legacies in the Americas.”

However, Morgan noted that simply exhibiting Black art is not enough to enact true change within an institution such as the MFA, saying, “Black art by Black artists that is specifically for the Black community is cash for white institutions. There’s a cultural capital… It’s never about what works best for the people that the pieces

are created for because the museum has no deep understanding of those cultural, political, socio-political, economic, visual frameworks, and traditions of Black communities because those are not the frameworks that inform the institution.”

The artistic depictions of leaders shape the public’s understanding of who these people are and what they stand for. Simultaneously, the way these representations are shared with the public impacts how viewers engage with the personas and legacies of their leaders. “I think it goes without saying that America’s leadership, for a very long time, has been dominated by elite white men,” Simon said. “I think the portrait of former President Obama… is a particularly dynamic take [that challenges] the visual rhetoric of power in our country that, for so long, has looked exactly the same.” To some, Wiley and Sherald’s portraits are a huge triumph for the representation of Black figures. At the same time, audiences should be aware of the spaces that these artworks occupy. If art museums truly want to serve as cultural, rather than just white, institutions, hanging up a canvas is not enough.

FRIENDS AND PARASITES

By Clara Davis

I am very influenceable. I have been influenced to put raspberries on peanut butter toast by a woman who claims to have invented it. I have been influenced to eat off a tray because then you can eat in bed without feeling weird—and because it looks nice. I have not, unlike prob ably hundreds of other people, been influenced to stick my foot in the gap between an airplane and the jet bridge when boarding; et, when I get on a plane, I think of the story reposts this Instagram influencer shared of his fol lowers putting their feet in the gap. I think to myself, I’m not going to do that, because that would be silly.

I’m picky about which influencers I follow on Ins tagram. I’m generally a judgemental person, and I don’t like to think I can be easily manipulated. I like to think I make conscious decisions about the media landscape I want to live in. So I tell myself—and at times others—that the ones I do choose to follow are “different.” They are not really influencers; they are writers, photographers, art ists, comedians, and spiritual advisors. Or, as I tell myself, their accounts are performance art.

I know other Instagram influencer accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers are made up of spe cifically curated posts that come together to sell an image. I also know these accounts subconsciously influence each other to the point where they may not know why they are posting the images they are posting. Whenever I see an “influencer” release a book or a song or start posting art out of nowhere, it feels wrong to me. Why should their work be reaching a larger audience than an or artist? It’s unfair, while knowing how hard people with out large followings struggle to get published. So, the “in fluencer” books I have read must be different—they must be genuine, and made by people who were artists before they were influencers. In a way, I’m jealous of the atten tion they get automatically, without having to have their work necessarily be any good. Still, I don’t really trust my own judgment. Who am I to say content that thousands of people love is bad?

We can see influencers as friends or as parasites. We learn from and are inspired by them while they benefit from and live off of our attention and influenceability. If they sell ads, then everything they promote contributes to selling those ads. It’s weird, because I can count on

finally did get to speak to her, I had nothing to say. I didn’t have any questions for her because I felt like an expert in her philosophies and practice. I ended up complimenting the food at the event—I knew she had picked it out from watching her Instagram story that morning.

For me, Instagram serves to fill some void that exists in “real life.” Discussions of LGBT+ issues or mental ill ness can range from acting as a critical haven to a breed ing ground for toxic behavior. Instagram was a window into contemporary social issues when I was just in middle school. When I was in 8th grade, I vividly remember see ing a meme on a “niche meme” page about how judging other girls for how they present themselves is falling into a misogynistic trap.This was not something my all-girls middle school was talking about. Everyone made fun of me for talking about the most basic feminist concepts by calling me angry. In high school, the memes and long captions filled a void at a time when my classes were all

very prescriptive. Now, I’m taking a class where half the topics this Instagram artist/writer talks about are all over our syllabus.

Now, I think of how the woman with 150,000 fol lowers talked about the way a Tumblr life advice blog im pacted her as a teenager. She had written it at her most vulnerable moments. I know this because I went into the archives of the account to find the posts she described. I could feel her parasocial feelings through her 16-yearold self’s words. Scrolling through the blogger’s writing, I could see its clear influence on the Instagram woman, even on the things I hate about her. I hope when I’m 28 or whatever I can look back at her influence on me in a positive light—like how the Instagram millennial looks at her Tumblr mentor. I hope we all are getting something valuable out of this digital landscape. I know it’s kind of awful. I hope we have a nicer one in the future.

PAKISTAN FLOODS

A

SOLIDARITY

By Siona Wadhawan

Over a one-third of Pakistan currently lies underwater. Monsoon season has triggered catastrophic flooding, dev astating villages, displacing over 33 mil lion people, killing over 1,700 people, and sparking major disease outbreaks. In late August, the Pakistani government began working to provide aid to citizens by re leasing national funds in the form of im mediate cash relief. By August 30, the gov ernment created the 2022 Pakistan Floods Response Plan (FRP) in collaboration with the United Nations Office for the Coor dination of Humanitarian Affairs, which aims to provide life-saving resources in cluding food, water, health services, shel ter, and agricultural assistance. However, due to the scale of the flooding and a lack of many people, including members of the Tufts

community, continue to be impacted.

For example, Pakistani students like senior Warisha Siddiqui, the initial news of massive floods led to worry about their families back home. “When I first heard about the floods, my immediate reaction was to call my mom and ask if anyone in our family was affected,” said Siddiqui. “Ever since then, I’ve been calling to ask for updates.”

However, Siddiqui feels that socio economic status played a great role in how she and her family were impacted. “We’ve been very lucky that none of our property was significantly damaged. Ev eryone just experienced a little bit of wa ter damage,” Siddiqui said. “I think that really speaks to the privilege my family has as a middle-class family.”

While some communities have en dured minor damage, over 4 million acres of crops nationwide were decimated, tak ing away a primary source of income for hundreds of thousands of families. Addi tionally, over 300,000 homes were washed away by the flooding.

A recent study by scientists affiliated with the World Weather Attribution, a research initiative that specifically stud ies severe weather anomalies, confirmed that the floods have been heavily exacer bated by climate change, becoming one of the worst environmental disasters in the world. As the earth heats up as a re sult of heat-trapping gasses released into the atmosphere, more water evaporates,

intensifying the level of rainfall that oc curs during monsoons. However, ac cording to Boston-based Pakistani activ ist Muhammad Burhan, these floods are not receiving a commensurate level of international attention.

“This is an issue that needs the world’s attention right now. We are dealing with a humanitarian crisis, yet it is barely getting any international coverage,” Burhan said.

Burhan has been writing to multiple climate organizations in the US urging members to spread awareness and raise money for people in need. At a climate action protest on Wednesday, September 21, led by Extinction Rebellion Boston, Burhan spoke about the state of Pakistan. He critiqued the lack of news coverage as a result of the West’s tendency toward a very Eurocentric approach to climate change.

“If we compare the frequency of cov erage as well as the amount of resources Pakistan received compared to those of other human disasters in Western coun tries, you will see a big difference,” Burhan said. “When we think about Pakistan, we don’t really think about climate change or the things that Pakistan is also known for, like its glaciers and large amount of bio diversity. This has a lot to do with inter nalized racism, internalized xenophobia, and so many other internalized hatreds in which we have divided [our]selves.”

Many people have pointed out fund ing disparities when it comes to humani tarian conflicts in the Global North versus

those in the Global South. For example, Pakistan has only received a total of $51 million in global aid, despite conservative initial government estimates placing the damage done at approximately $10 billion.

Freshman Shoshana Daley, a member of Tufts Climate Action, agreed the climate change movement is not doing enough to address the needs of all people around the world. “People in the Global South, like in Pakistan, are the people that are being most affected by climate change, but in the West, people are so removed from these areas that they don’t even pay attention,” Daley said. “It’s not just those secluded areas. It’s also neighborhoods within our own cities and towns that are just like for gotten because of ethnicity, race, or socio economic status.”

Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world’s global emissions, yet it is ranked 8th for most vulnerable to cli mate change according to the Global Risk Index. Political science professor Fahd Humayun believes countries that contrib ute the most to global pollution should take more responsibility when it comes to climate disasters like these. “There needs to be clear and unambiguous ownership from the big polluters in the Global North of not just the havoc that’s playing out in these countries, but also in spearheading concrete action plans to help mitigate and preempt disasters that will definitely occur in the future,” Humayun said. He believes wealthier countries must make an ongoing commitment to lessen climate inequali ties. “The focus should be not just aid to help countries like Pakistan build back better, but on climate reparations and debt swaps that speak to the inequity of climate change—who contributes to it, and who is most affected by it.”

The term “climate reparations” refers to calls for money and resources to be paid by countries in the Global North to the Global South to account for the un equal roles in contributing to global gas emissions, as well how climate response disparities have been shaped by histories of slavery, colonialism, and imperialism, increasing the wealth of some countries at the expense of others.

Burhan also described Pakistani people’s efforts to organize. “Pakistan has a big tech industry, so a lot of people are now starting these startups to help people

being affected by flooding,” Burhan said. “One of my friends, for example, started an organization that gets live data about people being affected, and then lists places for people to donate to.”

In addition to technology, many Paki stani citizens have mobilized to advocate and bring attention to the flooding. On the day of the Global Climate Strike on September 23, several Pakistani activists, including members of Climate Action Pakistan, gathered in Islamabad to raise awareness and fundraise for victims.

Both Daley and Siddiqui believe there are more actions the Tufts community can take to be in solidarity with those im pacted. “Within [the TCA] I’ve noticed it is very focused on divestment and has not made explicit efforts to diversify voices,” Daley said. “I think we can be making more efforts to connect with grassroots or ganizations instead of just focusing on di vestment because if we are just doing that, we’ve failed to see the whole picture.”

For Pakistani students like Sid diqui, recognition from the university about global issues holds weight. “One thing the administration could do is send a message of acknowledg ment when these things happen, especially to show they support our international students,” Siddiqui said. “I also think they could link cur rent students who are interested in finding actionable solutions to alumni that are doing work around them.”

Siddiqui believes in dividual stu dents can have more of an impact than they might think. “You can look to donate to nonprof its that are actually working on the ground to help those who are survivors of the floods,” Siddiqui said. “Even just simple amplification like reposting an infographic

does a lot to raise awareness on issues and to educate people that might not have in formation on it.”

Many organizations both locally in Pakistan and internationally have created fundraisers to provide direct resources to flooding victims. As people continue to face dire consequences of this ongoing di saster, organizations are desperately seek ing donations from those outside of the region. Whether it be direct donations or simple word of mouth, all have a part to play when it comes to being in solidarity with Pakistan.

Organizations to donate to:

• Fundraiser by Kamil Ahsan: S olidarity Appeal for Flood Victims in Pakistan

• Zakat Foundation of America

• Akhuwat USA

• I-Care Fund America

• HDF

• The Citizen Foundation USA

IS BEREAL BEING REAL? SOCIAL MEDIA AND AUTHENTICITY

By Millie Todd and Ava Vander Louw

It’s time to BeReal. As a notification simultaneously pops up on screens across the world, people rush to pick up their phones and candidly capture their lives. BeReal, released in December 2019, describes itself as, “A new and unique way to discover who your friends really are in their daily life.” The app has effectively catapulted a trend of perceived authenticity, leaving no room in the app for filters, edits, or pre-captured photos. When the notification drops at a random point during the day, users have two minutes to capture themselves and their environment through front and backfacing cameras. The app pushes users to really “be real” by ditching metrics such as likes in exchange for retake counts and time stamps that are public to friends. Despite diverging from how social media has been used in the past, BeReal has been a huge success in recent months, rising in popularity this year with a 315 percent increase in monthly users.

This trend has permeated the Tufts community, with students eager to post snapshots of their everyday lives. Compared to other social media apps, BeReal feels temporary. As soon as a post is published, the user has a keyhole view into the lives of their friends and community. Each post is only public on the app for a day before it is moved into a private memories section. Junior Sammy Walkey said, “Its temporary nature makes people a lot less pressured to care about how they look, and it’s more about being in the moment... It encapsulates everything I like about the way I use social media.” This characteristic of BeReal allows for a more transparent, personal experience online. Walkey mentioned she uses it as a way to share what she is doing with her friends and see what they are doing in return.

The app’s impermanence is also intended to produce a more genuine experience online. With a feed that resets every day, BeReal does not create pressure

to curate one’s content, unlike many social media platforms. Sophomore Marlee Kitei does not feel this uncurated experience is attainable on platforms like Instagram. She said, “I wish I had more authenticity on my Instagram in particular. It’s hard to find a balance of being yourself, but also subconsciously wanting to present that best version of yourself.” As opposed to Instagram, BeReal was created with room for its users to be more like their real selves.

Psychology Department Chair Samuel Sommers agreed with the sentiment that BeReal allows for a new, more real experience on social media. He said, “We as psychologists, as behavioral scientists, like to study human behavior, and this idea [of BeReal] that you’re capturing [life] not at the times where people necessarily want to present themselves, but rather at randomly selected times throughout the day, is a clever idea.” Sommers explained he thinks the idea is clever because it diverges from typical social media usage. However, the app is still a social media platform on which users present themselves through content. Though the structure of BeReal may be different from other social media, it is still difficult to determine whether someone’s post is an accurate representation of their real life.

Junior Paige Duff feels BeReal strives to reach a level of genuineness, but may not be completely successful. She explained that though the idea of BeReal allows for authenticity, any social media on which one intentionally represents themselves through content cannot be fully authentic. Sommers said, “We know that when people get to choose how to depict themselves, they think about their self-presentational concerns.” It is nearly impossible to post online without considering how one looks or if what they are posting looks fun, so there is always a conscious evaluation of content before it is posted, removing the post’s realness. There are other aspects of BeReal that also

take away from its capability to maintain authenticity, such as the ability to post after the notification is released or skip a day.

Although BeReal might not pressure users to edit photos or take several before choosing the best one, it creates pressure to subscribe to the “authentic” nature on which it has built its following. Senior Maeve McGean mentioned how BeReal has capitalized on the fact that this generation is constantly on their phones in order to push the idea of authenticity. In a written statement to the Tufts Observer, they said, “My major problem with BeReal is that the premise of the app assumes people are next to their phones 24/7. I think most young people recognize that that form of constant reachability is a problem, but what BeReal has done is make constant reachability trendy. In fact, it’s a social faux pas if you don’t complete your BeReal quickly.” In order to follow the trend of authenticity specific to BeReal, users have to post within two minutes of its notification; otherwise, one is not perceived as “being real.”

On the positive side, BeReal does allow for positive aspects of social media, such as bringing people together and allowing for self-expression. As Walkey mentioned, BeReal is a way to share what one is doing with friends. This aspect of BeReal is not exclusive to the app and can be fulfilled through other platforms as well. Instagram also has tools that make it more personal, such as private accounts or close friends stories. Kitei said, “I have a photo dump account for just close friends. That’s my favorite place to post... I think it’s just a great form of connection.” For students, BeReal has identified a hole in social media and filled it by combining aspects of other platforms, such as temporary stories on Instagram and Snapchat and close friends platforms to create a more intimate platform.

While BeReal has brought the question of authenticity to the surface, many still view social media in general as an inauthentic platform. Senior Kiara Mastropasqua, who had BeReal for a couple of months and then deleted it, said, “I think at times it can become super performative and almost competitive. When you are getting insight into

that on social media, it is impossible to avoid the curation of a persona, which fundamentally contradicts the idea of authenticity. McGean wrote that BeReal has made realness on social media a trend, but does not indicate a true desire for users to be fully candid through their content. “In an ideal world, I’d say that BeReal is evidence that people are sick and tired of fake, edited, and highly curated social media content,” McGean wrote. “If that were the case, however, people would stop using platforms like Instagram. But they haven’t.” It has become clear that even through efforts to be authentic on social media, all online interactions are purposeful, even on BeReal. Kitei said,

“There’s been more than one time where I’ve waited to post my BeReal knowing I have a concert later, or something exciting I’m doing. I know it’s against the point of the app, but sometimes you just have that temptation.” Even if it is inadvertent, students are still curating everything that appears on social media.

Being aware of the purposefulness of sharing content is important when using social media to fully understand the impacts it has on users. Sommers said, “We know that concerns about selfpresentation and how you present yourself to others are very important at various stages of life, especially in adolescence and young adulthood.” It is clear that the constant curation present on social media lends difficulties to presenting authentic content. Though Duff thinks social media can be authentic in “fleeting moments,” she ultimately acknowledges that social media includes active decisions to portray oneself in a curated manner. Mastropasqua also acknowledged this, saying, “when you’re posting on social media, you’re thinking about everything with an audience in mind.”

DIGITAL DOPAMINE

By Lily Feng

No matter if I am looking out the window in the small nook of a library or on the windowsill of my childhood bedroom—for me, windows offer a beautiful sense of stillness: a muted pause that is so hard to find in a rapidly moving world. However, the full truth is that I am drawn to windows because they offer an escape—a deluding sense of escape from external weights and responsibilities. Yet, my windows lie. My win dows hide their deception behind twinkling glass panes that offer an illusion of connection into the physical world. These windows placate my senses, and I have learned to delude myself into believing that I can still hear the whispers of trees, to naïvely imagine I can feel the full warmth of the sun through these transparent walls that enclose me.

The thought of social media terrifies me because of my desperate need to escape. For me, social media is my most deceiving window—the most convincing lie and absolute distraction.

My windows that create this illusion of an escape from myself are not merely the physical “window.” Rather, they extend to the pastimes I enjoy most: immersing myself in a book, listening to a stream of pod casts or music, or losing myself on a run. Most of all, I see it in burying myself in my work, which provides such an automatic switch to autopilot—to ignore me. Through their never-ending onslaught of stimulation on my senses, my windows lie. They complete the shimmering mirage that I am growing and developing alongside life rather than watching life pass me by. They deceive me that I, too, am physically present with this reality while my mind retreats further from its material actuality into itself. These windows comfort me, providing a realistic fiction in a futile attempt for me to quiet my thoughts that are both nowhere and everywhere at once. As I pretend to be physically connected to the present, my actual reality peaks through the cracks of my illusion built upon fragile glass panes. A reality that breaks my desperate struggle to find any escape, any distraction, anything that will offer just one ounce of relief to escape the dissonance and confu sion of comprehending my own life. What happens when the world around me can no longer offer itself as a distraction or a euphoric sense of freedom—when a book, a podcast, a song, a run eventually fades to noth ing and ceases to seduce? Where do we turn?

In the 21st century, we turn to the internet.

It is hard for me to remember that the internet is young, and social media is even younger. Only 10 years after the birth of the information age, “social media” became a widely-used digital platform. MySpace and Facebook were released in 2004, Instagram in 2010, Snapchat in 2011, TikTok in 2016. It is hard for me to remember “the internet” must still be rooted in the physical world. All things “digital” come back to an ex traordinarily intense system of wires, routers, satellites, computers, and code that I cannot begin to compre

hend. Nevertheless, it’s a system that dissolves our lives into pinpricks of data, coded into an arbitrary blend of numbers, letters, symbols that have engulfed our lives in the time span of a mere decade.

This random assortment of plastics and wires of the real, physical world has created this digital space. An endless stream of information that now dictates our lives, it has lent itself to the immaterial, a space that exists beyond. In many senses, the digital age of social media offers an additional window into each other’s lives, an alternative to the eternal intrinsic human need for relationships, and for intimate con nections that have the ability to extend across physical borders and time. There is no limit to those we can interact with and the communities we find and create.

Social media offers a window, a literal screen, into each other’s lives. It offers a world of connection. Yet once again, I find this urge to lie.

The fantasy social media offers pacifies our desire for connection. Yet how can social media replicate an entire relationship that starts with the comfortable pauses, the gentle murmur of two voices and the punc turing laughter, the melody of conversation? How can it capture the steady warmth and physical presence of a person beside you? It cannot. And the flimsy grasps that it makes to form these ties, the misleading emula tion of a relationship, isolates me and causes me to distrust the human connection. It lies.

What started as a harmless exploration of social media, a thrilling beginning to establish myself on social media, slowly became an overindulgence. Then, it evolved into a compulsive overconsumption and ob sessive need to keep searching for the next new Instagram post, Snapchat story, Youtube video, or viral tweet that would eventually flood my brain with digital dopamine. Being offline became unnatural and alien—a buzzing in my head that could only be soothed by a mind-numbing scroll on the internet just to feel normal, to feel in control. And each time I went to scroll, to search for the slightest bit of that initial euphoric thrill and escape, to find joy in anything other than myself, I would come back with a deeper, more fundamental necessity to find something to block myself out.

When the swirling mass of my thoughts becomes too immediate, too much, too loud, I turn to my phone. Social media mutes the ever omnipresent abyss of my thoughts that have no beginning nor end. What was so insidious is how social media distracts me from me; how it started changing those who I cared for more deeply than I did for myself, and those personal relationships. When suddenly, my friends and family, once the only thing that could fight against my obsessive need to be online, became captured by the digital world as well. When, we no longer could simply be together. It was then that I chose again to return to my self, to the present, and fight to truly be with others.

The future sees what is called the metaverse a mere decade after the birth of social media. A fully digitized reality that exists solely in the virtual realm: a complete detachment from the physical, the now and the present.

And so, what happens then, when we move further and further from the physical reality, from the physical bonds that tie us together? What happens when we continue to dive deeper into the digital space, deeper into distraction, when simultaneously the unrelenting hunger of my mind only grows with an un quenchable thirst for a stream of ceaseless thoughts fed into its unfillable void?

To imagine a world free from distractions is one that allows us to start truly facing ourselves and gives us the courage to look inwards. A permission to stop running, to stop escaping, and to start living freely, in the now.