magazine.
My Time in Afghanistan A Umass Dartmouth student reflects on his time spent at war
Plus Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Facing Your Fear of Roller Coasters Choosing a Career Summer Music Festivals LGBT Video Gaming Cricket on Campus Ice Skating Dreams On and Off Campus Living
Vol. 4.2 Spring 2015
1964 The year ground was broken on the futuristic campus in Dartmouth designed by world-renowned architect Paul Rudolph. Since then the campus has grown to 9,500 students and developed a $26 million research enterprise.
1
141,000
The number of public law schools in Massachusetts, and that one is at UMass Dartmouth, devoted to the practice of law for the public good.
Hours of community service performed by UMass Dartmouth students and faculty in a year.
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710
Interns engaged each year in learning and discovery at the UMass Dartmouth Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center in Fall River, home to research laboratories and start-up companies.
Acres of land dedicated to the main UMass Dartmouth campus — 75 percent of which remains undeveloped woodlands and is being used as a “living classroom.”
1,161 Pounds of sulfur dioxide to be eliminated by campus wind turbine…and 489 pounds of nitrous oxide and 295 tons of carbon dioxide.
$90 million Private investment in property around the downtown New Bedford College of Visual and Performing Arts since the University’s art center was opened and began drawing student and faculty artists to the neighborhood.
$356 million The economic impact of the campus on the SouthCoast region.
2 The number of miles that the campus WIMAX wireless signal can reach, providing students with a level of connectivity that can be found at only one other University, and that is in Michigan.
90 Coastal inlets from Cape Cod to Narragansett Bay that the students and faculty of the School of Marine Science and Technology are working to save from pollution.
umassd.edu/admissions/
Contents Spring 2015
7 Mobile Loaves Comes to New Bedford 8 Cricket: The Most Popular Game You’ve Probably Never Seen 10 Summer Music Festivals 12 On Campus or Off Campus? When deciding where to live, decisions loom either way. 14 Do You Want To Ride? The UMass Dartmouth Ski and Snowboard Club learn the importance of fundraising. 16 Success Behind the Lens 17 Majorly Stressed 18 Job Search 19 The Unjust Shaming of Miley Cyrus and Other Cultural Appropriators 22 LBGT Video Gaming: A look at the state of gay themes in video games. 26 Film Review: Marriage, Murder and Misogyny: What Gone Girl Says About Our Culture 28 Film Review: Sucker Punch: Feminism or Exploitation? 30 How to make it in the Art World
32 My Time in Afghanistan: Umass Dartmouth student Rufai Y. Shardow reflects on his time in the Army deployed in the Afghan war. 37 Gliding Through: Kary Church finds solace and redemption through ice skating and the military. 40 Wounded Warriors: The Continuing Stigma of PTSD in the Military 42 Playing the Care Game 44 The Pain of the Gain: Rising obesity in America 46 Apocalyptic Strain: The threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria continues to grow. 49 Sneaker Culture 50 Love for an U.G.L.Y. City: A look at the ups and downs of New Bedford’s art galleries. 54 The Thrill of Fear: One UMass student faces her fear of roller coasters. 56 Barbie Bratz & Body Image: How dolls impact girls’ self esteem and self-image.
Spring 2015
Cameron Aguiar Sasa Barbel Alanna Bernstein Joshua D. Botvin Aubrie Brault Michael Burke Amanda M. Butcher Brian Crimmins Anna Gallo Brooke Lyons Mary Macedo
Contributing Writers Matthew Medeiros Douglas McCulloch Nicholas Murray Corinne Pavao William Remillard Rufai Y. Shardow Merri Sullivan Neftali Torres Nikhila Vijaybhaskar Kelsey Wilbur Ashley Wojtunik
Contributing Designers Olivia Bean Alicia Boulos Aimee Gonsalves Stephanie Pacheco Sarah Sams Merri Sullivan Andrew Tornetta Supervising Faculty Dr. Anthony F. Arrigo
Dart Magazine Would Like to Thank the Following Underwriters The College of Arts and Sciences The Department of English The College of Visual and Performing Arts The Office of Undergraduate Admissions Graduate Studies and Research Development The Office of Public Affairs
UMass Dartmouth Department of English http://www.umassd.edu/cas/english/ Department of English UMass, Dartmouth LArts 341 285 Old Westport Road N. Dartmouth, MA 02747 Phone: 508-999-8274
Do you have questions, comments, article ideas, or letters to the editor? Feel free to let us know by emailing Professor Anthony Arrigo (aarrigo@umassd.edu)
Welcome to Dart Magazine...
Dear Dart reader, Dart Magazine is a unique academic collaboration between several writing and design classes taught in the Department of English at UMass Dartmouth. Here is the process of how the magazine is created. Each magazine edition is developed over the course of one semester. As students in various writing and journalism classes begin the first drafts of their articles, students in the Document Design course begin learning the basics of design, magazine layout, and various computer programs, particularly the Adobe Creative Suite. As soon as the writing and journalism classes begin submitting drafts, the Document Design class begins working on layouts. After a semester-long process of many revisions, graphical iterations, and long nights spent in the computer labs, Dart is ready to go to print and thus completing a “real world� publication process. Dart is an inter-departmental and inter-college endeavor that brings together undergraduate and graduate English, Photography, and Graphic Design majors. Dart is also a showcase of UMass Dartmouth creativity and collaboration as many of the photos and graphics, and all of the articles and layouts are contributed and developed by students from the University. We hope you enjoy reading Dart as much as we enjoy creating it.
UMass Dartmouth Department of English
Opportunities for Undergraduates Publications
• Corridors: the annual ejournal of Best Student Essays in the foundation courses http://www.umassd.edu/corridors • Dart: a semesterly culture magazine • Siren: a journal about gender issues • Temper: the annual literary review: poetry, fiction, drama, and creative nonfiction • The Torch: the student newspaper
Scholarships
• Adam Cohen Memorial Award: an annual $500 award recognizing academic excellence in literary studies for an upper-level student • Augustus Silva Award: an annual $3000 Scholarship for one English Major in each concentration
English Major Concentrations Writing , Rhetoric, and Communications This option develops’ competencies in effective communication. Students learn to assess and produce language for a range of rhetorical situations, analyze the discourse of others, and critically consider the ways in which language helps us to influence and order our world and our communities.
Literature and Criticism
This option focuses on reading and writing about a range of literary and cultural texts, and examining human experience in all its complexity. Through close reading and analysis of literary texts, students learn to articulate their own ideas and to engage the views of others, both in and outside the classroom.
A Major in English prepares you to: • Meet communication challenges in the workplace • Succeed in Law School • Succeed in Graduate School • Become a teacher • Become a journalist • Become a technical or freelance writer
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umassd.edu/professionalwriting | facebook.com/professionalwriting
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Mobile Loaves Comes to New Bedford
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hivering bodies huddle together underneath the roaring road of city cars. Rough hands rub together, worn shoes pace through the snow, tired eyes strain in the frigid wind. Down the road, a Mobile Loaves and Fishes truck pulls up and comes to a halt before the huddled people. In the fall of 1998, a group of six men from Austin, Texas worked together with the goal of providing a free daily meal to homeless men and women. “The ministry began when five members of St. John Nuemann Catholic Church loaded a green minivan with sack lunches and went out into the streets of Austin to serve those trying to survive on the streets,” said Perri Verdino-Gates, Communications Coordinator of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. Within a few short months, they were able to purchase the very first catering truck, which would be the first of many more to come. “Since its beginning, Mobile Loaves & Fishes has served nearly 3.5 million meals with the support of more than 17,000 volunteers, making MLF the largest prepared feeding program to the homeless and working poor in Austin,” said Alan Graham, founder of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. The organization now has a second location at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts that is run
By Anna Gallo Layout by Olivia Bean
by volunteers. Every day, the church is open to the public for anyone who wants to lend a hand and prepare food, and also sort through donated clothing. After the truck is packed, they head to downtown New Bedford to hand out clothing, food, and support to any who are in need. In 2011, Mobile Loaves and Fishes expanded their ministry and began ROADS, a micro-opportunity business program for the homeless in Austin, Texas. The service allows homeless men and women to serve the community and earn profits from their work through the three programs: Street Treats, an ice-cream vending service; iClean, a waterless and environmentally safe car cleaning service; and a workshop to express creative skills “The whole idea is that they would be able to use their God-given talent and have an opportunity to earn a dignified income to help lift them off of the streets,” said Nate Schlueter, ROADS director. Mobile Loaves and Fishes is more than just a service that provides opportunities and fills empty stomachs. “We merely use food as a conduit to connect human to human and heart to heart,” says Alan Graham. Maybe that is what it’s all about: looking past the aching exteriors of the less fortunate and realizing that we all deserve love, even if it is through a plastic bag lunch.
SERVED NEARLY MILLION MEALS
3.5
WITH THE HELP OF OVER
17,000 VOLUNTEERS
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CRICKET: THE MOST POPULAR GAME YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER SEEN By Nikhila Vijaybhaskar Layout by Olivia Bean
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cricket is one of the most enduring cultural legacies left behind by the British Raj. Now cricket is played in more than 100 countries around the world, and is wildly popular in India, Pakistan, Australia, England, and South Africa among other places. However, cricket’s popularity has geographical restrictions, enjoying near-cult status in much of Southeast Asia, while in the US people are most likely to think of an insect when they hear “cricket.” India’s Passion Cricket is often said to be the second-most popular sport at the global level, however, the uncertainty in this statistic stems from an unlikely source: whether or not the 1.2 billion people in India are watching a given cricket match. Cricket’s power over the subcontinent is simply amazing. In India, everyday life comes to a halt if the team is playing in the World Cup, the largest
Photo by Mark Shelley on Flickr
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leven men stand in a loose circle in parking lot 3. Their workout clothes are colorful spots against the grey surface. At the center of the circle is a man in grey, stooped purposefully over a wooden bat in his hands. A tattered tennis ball comes spinning at him. He takes a powerful swing and sends it flying to his left, right into someone’s waiting hands. A cheer erupts around the circle. It was a good practice session. Another win is waiting to happen. This scene is a regular happening for those on campus who play Cricket, the world’s second most popular game, one that is slowly regaining popularity in the United States after a several-hundred year lull. Cricket has a long history that goes back to the 16th century. Its geographic origins can be mapped to England, and the game spread as the British colonized countries around the globe. In India, for example,
cricket championship that’s held once every four years. Children will not go to school and adults will try to work from home. All 29 states and 7 union territories will weep as one if a player goes down. A billion victory cries will go up if the “Men in Blue” post a win. Although the game doesn’t have a strong American following now, it was a pre-Civil War favorite that was later eclipsed by Baseball, a much quicker, and action-oriented sport. However, cricket is making a strong comeback in several parts of the country in the form of varsity teams and small clubs. According to a recent article in The Atlantic, cricket is now officially a varsity high school sport in the largest school system in the country–New York City. Cricket Comes to UMD UMass Dartmouth’s student body is very much a part of this revival zeitgeist. Our very own cricket team–the UMass Dartmouth Cricket Club (UMDCC)–was founded in 2010. The club recruits new players every year to compete in the Massachusetts State Cricket League (MSCL). UMD’s Cricket team is the only university-level team in Massachusetts that has moved up through two divisions in the MSCL in the last three years and is continuing to rise through the ranks. Trinath Polisetty, an alumnus of the Business and
Engineering schools at UMass Dartmouth took the initiative to form the team in 2010. After playing for 4 years in small, unofficial matches, he put together an official team of 11 students with the help of Professor Satya Parayitam, the team’s faculty advisor. Bringing together talented individuals with the right spirit for the game was no small task. “We couldn’t ask students to devote too much time to cricket; they had to dedicate most of their time to coursework and campus jobs,” Polisetty said. Despite all the shortcomings and the work that is always involved in doing something for the first time, the UMDCC has been up and running since its inception. Apart from several other accomplishments the team has to its name, one that really stands out is when star batsman Praveen Manoharan scored his career best of 191 runs off 84 balls in a Division 2 match in 2012. The league season begins in late April or early May and goes on through the summer, sometimes until the end of September. So the next time you are looking to catch a good game and lounge about in the sun for a while, check out when the UMD team is playing on their home ground. If you happen to wander about the campus on weekends, and if you’re lucky, you might find these guys playing in one of the empty parking lots. d
Circket is the 2nd most popular sport worldwide (behind soccer) with somewhere between 2 and 3 billion fans. Cricket is wildly popular in India Pakistan Australia England South Africa Srilanka New Zealand West Indies Bangladesh Zimbabwe Most popular sports by country. Cricket seen here in red.
WHAT IS CRICKET? Two teams of 11 players each are pitted against each other in a “match.” A match has two parts - the first and second innings.
At the beginning of every match, a coin is tossed and the team that wins the toss gets to choose whether it wants to bat or field first. The length of a match is determined by how many balls are played by the batsmen. A bowler (what baseball might call the pitcher) completes an “over” when they bowl 6 times in succession. If the team that wins the toss elects to bat first, two players called the “openers” are sent out. A bowler then bowls the first over, and the match goes on. The score in cricket is kept in “runs.” The batsmen score runs based on how far they hit the ball. There are several ways in which a batsman can get out. The most common one is the “clean bowled” in which the ball sails past the batsman’s bat and upsets the threecolumn setup called “stumps” behind them. An innings comes to an end when all the players from the batting team have been dismissed. In the second innings, the roles are reversed, and the second team has to score more runs than the first to win the match.
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ERN MUSIC
SCENE
MUNIT Y
& COM
of the MOD
E C N E S S E
/////////// encapsulate the ///////////
FESTIVALS
SMALLER MUSIC
By Alanna Bernstein Layout by Stephanie Pacheco
Photos by Evan Sabgal on Flickr
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uring the summer months, hundreds of thousands of people venture out all across the country to attend music festivals such as Coachella, Bonaroo, and Ultra, in Miami. But traveling so far can be a hassle and may require large sums of money. There are however, amazing music festivals closer to home that offer the same types of outstanding art and music. Every August, Bella Terra is held right over the western border of Massachusetts in the small town of Stephenstown, New York. Bella Terra hosts a range of musical acts, from old rock n roll cover bands to electronic music and some of the most popular hip-hop artists. In previous years, Ghostface Killah from the Wu-Tang Clan performed, along with Grateful Dead Tribute band, Max Creek. Bella Terra has also seen performances by rapper, Immortal Technique, and the amazing one man band, Zack Deputy. “Initially I went with a group of my friends to see the Problemaics, a local rap group from Amherst, MA,” said Chase Collamore who has attended Bella Terra each year since he discovered it in 2010. “We heard they were playing at Bella Terra, and we didn’t really know about music festivals– well we had obviously heard about Burning Man and Coachella, and obviously Woodstock. We mostly went for that one local band and when we got there we realized that was the place where we wanted to be, and I’ve been back every year since.” Other noteworthy local festivals worth attending are StrangeCreek and Wormtown. After attending
both festivals for numerous years in a row, Sean Byrne says, “Wormtown and StrangeCreek feel like a temporary loving community where the problems of the ‘real world’ fade away, so we can experience bliss. Mental and social boundaries are expanded and [this] can bring a new light onto your life than can stay with you when the festival is over.” In Greenfield, Massachusetts, at the end of the spring people gather for StrangeCreek Campout to kick off the start to festival season. At the end of festival season, they return to Greenfield for Wormtown. Musical acts mainly based in New England perform at these festivals and there are many local artists selling their paintings, jewelry and glass. “Creativity exists beyond just the acts on stage and vendors at stalls,” says Byrne. The sense of self expression is a theme that is carried by many festivals and when Mayhem Fest comes to the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts each year, hardcore music scene fans get their opportunity. Their enthusiasm is exemplified by John Constant, a self-described “raging “metalhead.” To him, ”Mayhem Fest is like the ultimate release of energy and excitement, paired with friendly violence. I feel a sort of brotherly exuberance every year when I go.” The community aspect of the smaller festivals comes into play more than at larger ones. “The more local festivals are smaller and easier to navigate around from the campsite to the stage. They also have a more intimate setting,” according to Collamore, “It’s like shopping at a mom and pop store as opposed to Walmart.” Dart
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On-Campus or Off-Campus? When deciding where to live, decisions loom either way.
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By William Remillard
ith students at Umass Dartmouth currently paying up to $8,832 per academic year–more than $1,100 a month–to live on campus you may wonder if is it worth spending the money. A variety of available apartments and small houses are for rent in North Dartmouth for prices as low as $700 a month. Towns like New Bedford and Fall River offer ones as low as $495 a month, a savings of $400 to $605 a month. If a student spent even one academic year living in an off-campus apartment, they could save upwards of $4500. But just because something is cheaper, doesn’t mean it’s also the same quality as what you would find on campus. In fact, the quality of off-campus housing can vary dramatically. The Umass Dartmouth website advertises that the Woodland Commons apartments provide a fully furnished living space including individual bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and one or two bathrooms. Lower prices can also come with more inconvenience. Car owners living in Woodland Commons, for example, can purchase a parking pass that will allow them to park in multiple lots. Residents also have the convenience of being in close proximity to classes, other students, and everything else the campus provides. “For me, the best part of living on campus is feeling like I am a part of the community and having everything so close to me” said Ben Holtzman, a student living in Birch Hall. There are also technological costs to consider. Off campus, you will be required to purchase Internet access separately. The on-campus network is free. Though that, too, is not always a given. Umass Dartmouth advertises it’s “innovative technology: WiMAX network” as a feature of the college, but in the apartments you are forced to use a wired connection and it’s not always the best. “When I first came here I had a lot of problems with the internet,” said Brenden Smith, a student living in Evergreen Hall, “so I just ended up buying my own router.” Off-campus housing will vary between different places. Renters must figure out what kind of space they would like to live in and if the available locations suit their needs. It’s also important to check what the surrounding area is like, such as whether it is more residential or commercial. Living off campus means commuting to the campus, needing some form of transportation to get here, and perhaps finding it harder to obtain a sense of community and get involved. “At first I felt unable to get involved and I thought it was a bad decision,” said Eric Green, a student who resides off campus. “But after joining a club I was a lot more active on campus.” You’ll also be forced to shop for your own food and if you’re driving your own car, pay for gas. How far away from campus and other frequently travelled to locations you live will affect how much you’re going to pay. Whether living on-campus or off, each has its positives and negatives, and every student has to make their own choice deciding which one is best for them. 12
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Photo by Deirdre Confar/UMass Dartmouth PhotoGraphics
Photo by Molly Harrington/UMass Dartmouth PhotoGraphics
Photo by Lee Wright on Flickr
Clockwise from top: The Woodlands at UMass Dartmouth, Downtown New Bedford, Cedar Dells at UMass Dartmouth
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Photo by Pat Mulrroney on Flickr
Do You Want to Ride?
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The new leaders of the UMass Dartmouth Ski and Snowboard Club have learned a valuable lesson in the importance of fundraising to keep a club going. By Mary Macedo Layout by Olivia Bean
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he UMass Dartmouth Ski and Snowboard Club seeks to offer affordable opportunities for all students to ski or snowboard without the additional worries of finding a ride to the mountains. However, after a recent shake-up of the club, getting reorganized has proven to be a steep learning curve for the new leadership. “I became a member of the club a few years ago because I heard about it from a friend,” said Brian McDonald. “I’m still a member because it’s a great way to have fun and ride for a much cheaper price.” While the new leadership was getting their bearings, many students on campus were left unaware of the club’s activities, and the club has had to cancel some trips. “It has definitely been a learning experience” said new treasurer Brandon Medeiros. “It was difficult making decisions for the whole club, rather than just being a part of it and going on trips.” Fundraising, working with SAIL, and advertising were all new tasks these new officers had to deal with to make each trip happen. “We got lucky because this year SAIL implemented a new program that helped make reserving tables for promoting our club activities and contacting our group members and officers so much easier,” said new president Brittany Dwyer. “It was really helpful because SAIL had to teach everyone the new program, so it gave me some good learning experience going into my first year as the president of the club.”
For these new leaders, this year has been more about learning how to run a student club than actually skiing. “Between reserving tables, scheduling buses, and raising enough money, we really had to delegate some of the work,” said Dwyer. “All of us club officers really work together well and share all the tasks equally.” The biggest struggle for these new officers was being able to get all the members of the club involved in fundraising. “I’m bummed we couldn’t go on more trips this year,” said Medeiros. “We usually have a week-long trip during spring break, but we couldn’t raise enough money for it.” SAIL only gives each club a certain amount of funding and because Ski and Snowboard Club is quite an expensive activity, a substantial amount of fundraising has to happen. For the new officers, it was hard to know how much fundraising needed to be done. “I don’t think we knew what to expect or really even how to fundraise or get people to come,” said Medeiros. “It was all new to us and a lot more work than I expected.” The Ski and Snowboard Club may have had a rough season, but it is learning from its new experiences and is excited about gaining new members in the future. “It is an awesome club,” said Medeiros. “Discounted tickets, no need to drive the four long hours to Bretton Woods or Cannon and you can make some amazing friends, while being able to some shred sweet parks.”
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“ S N “
T H By Neftali Torres Layout by Aimee Gonsalves
Success is an easy concept to imagine but a painstaking process that few have the pleasure to acquire. As students, Umass Dartmouth gives you a lot of opportunities to succeed but many tend to fall through or quit. So landing your dream job is just that, a dream. That is unless you’re Artie. Arthur Hopkins or “Artie” as he is known is a Photo major at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He learned about his interest in photography at a young age and progressively worked on his craft, finding the mere satisfaction his pictures gave him as inspiration to learn more techniques and test his creative abilities in photo competitions. He now works for Riphort magazine, an up-and-coming magazine in New York City. Riphort, a lifestyle magazine, covers fashion, music, artists, and topics ranging from next generation gaming to sneaker releases to celebrity scandals 16
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“It’s hard thinking that just two and half years ago we were freshmen trying to figure college out” said Ryan Nunes, a close friend of Artie’s. “It goes to show you what a little focus and perseverance can get you,” he continued. Success can sometimes elude students and seem almost unreachable at times, yet Artie stands as one of the many at Umass Dartmouth who pursued his dream and found it. Passion and self-motivation led this young photographer to achieve good credentials and an exceptional amount of experience in his field. “I’ve been lucky to meet and work with many amazing people,” Artie says. “Some of which include the fashion designer Autumn Hawk, celebrity artist Brian Fox, former boxing middle weight champ Kid Chocolate, and the list goes on.” He continues saying “I really enjoyed the rooftop photo-shoots we did in Manhattan.” He has also partnered with Nectar, a sunglasses
company who used his photos and is currently sponsoring his work. He continued saying, “I own around like 75 pairs of glasses,” “I’m very fortunate to be in this position so early in my life but what I really want is to be the boss.” An aspiration that all of us desire. At the front of the office of Riphort Magazine sits Brandon “Bova” Santiago the editor in chief. He’s all business yet comes off as a laid back easygoing individual who hired Artie more for his outgoing personality than his level of skill behind a camera. Brandon explained, “we interviewed many interns and what stood out about Artie is his uniqueness. It didn’t really matter to me if his photographs were sub-par or amazing,” because his personality is what he was interested in. The life and energy Artie brings is what Riphort prides itself on; a certain uniqueness that separates them from their competition. Success can sometimes be as easy as letting your best qualities show. Arthur Hopkins is an example of what every student is be capable of.
Photo by Paul Reynolds on Flickr
L E E
SUCCESS BEHIND
IT’S HARD THINKING THAT JUST TWO AND HALF YEARS AGO WE WERE FRESHMEN TRYING TO FIGURE COLLEGE OUT
Majorly S t re s s e d ? All students stress over majors. How can schools help them make the right choice? By Corinne Pavao Layout by Merri Sullivan
Photo by Sara V. on Flickr
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n alarm clock goes off at exactly 7:30 a.m. blasting a loud, monotonous beep that wakes a young girl whose eyes are still red from lack of sleep and whose mind is still foggy from the previous night’s studying session. She has a huge exam today and wanted to get in at least one more hour, but as she logs on to her university account she sees the dreaded email: Picking next semester’s classes starts today at 8 A.M. In total panic, the girl drops all plans of studying. Today is the day she has to sign up for spring semester! She logs onto her account and sees the list of classes she had previously selected, scanning each class number carefully. Her mind begins to fill with doubt. “Are these the right classes for me? Am I even in the right major?” Does this situation sound familiar? According to NBC News, more than 50% of all college students change their major, some even two to three times before fully deciding. An informal survey of Umass Dartmouth students shows that many never received any help picking their major. Most said they found, researched, and applied to the major on their own. Some even stated that their parents pressured them into picking a major, particularly science. One student was even threatened by his father to pick a science or be kicked out of their house. Once students find a major they enjoy, they often continue to feel external pressure from their families if they’ve picked anything other than a major that is guaranteed to find them a job. “People are not really supportive,” said Madeline Hernandez, a metals and fine jewelry arts senior at Umass Dartmouth. My immediate family members got really upset at my decision to be an art major.” Still, Hernandez never seriously considered changing her major. Her family is “starting to accept that what I do is my passion.” Almost all of the students interviewed stated that they like their major for the most part, but some still had second thoughts. Deanna Filsinger, a senior sociology major said she would switch even now. “I wanted to be a marine biology major but it is too late for me now.”
Could there be something done that will help students gain confidence when picking a major? A majority of students surveyed stated that having specific workshops, advising, or classes that were dedicated to focusing on the students’ interests and how to incorporate those interests into a career would have helped them pick their major with more confidence. Workshops would be “much better than students trying to figure it out on their own,” said Mary Carriere, a senior in psychology. Then students could avoid “switching majors because they made the wrong choice and staying longer while having to pay more money.”
Where to get help: On Campus: • Talk with your faculty advisor. • Stop by the Advising Center on weekdays from 8 to 5 at the in room 122 of the Foster Administration Building. • Schedule an appointment with a Career Counselor by calling 508-999-8658. Online: • The Occupational Outlook Handbook will tell you the average pay level and schooling requirements for careers. www.bls.gov/ooh/ • Umass Dartmouth’s “What Can I Do With This Major” page can give you some idea of where each major will take you: www.umassd.edu/career/careerplanning/ whatcanidowiththismajor/ • In CareerLink under MyCourses, you can take a “Type Focus” Test to find out which careers might suit you.
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JOB SEARCH: SOME ADVICE FOR NEW GRADUATES TO IMPROVE JOB PROSPECTS By Brian Crimmins Layout by Olivia Bean
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ob search: the phrase that to $1066 for people with Bachelor’s instills angst in every grauat- degrees and $815 for the general poping student. “The job market ulation. Unemployment rates follow is getting better,” says David a similar pattern. Kelly has also begun LePage, Assistant Director at talking to principals in the area and conthe UMD Career and Development Center ducting interviews. In fact, these are the shortly before the campus’ Career Expo. very reasons she is confident in her postAs seniors prepare to graduate, they will graduation prospects. And they should be. face a healthier, yet more competitive Networking is vital toward landing the job job market. Two students at the Expo, you want, says LePage. Citing statistics English major Katy Kelly, and Stephen from the Bureau of Labor, Steven RothBrown who is double majoring in both berg at CollegeRecruiter.com states that Computer and Electrical Engineering, 80% of jobs are unadvertised. Those with expressed confidence in their post-graduation “NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK.” career prospects. Brown believes that the Computer and Electrical Engineering program at UMD has prepared him well for a wide network will have a significantly life after college. For example, Brown greater advantage. LePage’s advice for has already done an internship through graduating seniors: the school. He believes that this will give To some extent, Kelly and Brown are him an advantage in getting the soft- typical cases. Engineering students usuware/hardware design job he is seeking. ally have the easiest time finding employ“That internship has career paths off of ment with their degree, according to it...I feel like that internship has given LePage, while certain majors in the Arts me a good leg-up to getting a job,” he & Sciences find it more difficult, though remarked. LePage agrees. In fact, he views things are looking up for everyone these an internship as necessary for graduates days. in the job market. According to him, many So what should students do to improve employers now see professional experi- their chances of finding a job? LePage ence through an internship as a necessity stresses that employers are always looking on any resume. Those who do not take for what he calls “soft skills,” regardless an internship put themselves at a severe of major. These include things like good disadvantage. communication, writing, leadership, and Kelly has taken a different strategy. interpersonal skills, along with the ability She plans on attending graduate school to multi-task, and meet strict deadlines. to get a job teaching. This is a statisti- These are attributes that will never go out cally viable strategy. For 2012, the Bureau of style, no matter what the job market is of Labor Statistics found that people like. According to LePage, if students can with Master’s degrees earned median develop and demonstrate their soft skills, weekly earnings of $1300, compared their chances of finding a job go way up. Photo by UMass Dartmouth Photographics
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Photo by Bornthisway
The Unjust Shaming of Miley Cyrus and Other Cultural Appropriators Written by Sasa Barbel Layout by Stephanie Pacheco
Though Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors” won the 2013 video of the year, Miley Cyrus’s performance with Robin Thicke ultimately “won” the VMA publicity sweepstakes by transforming it into The Miley Cyrus Show. Though Cyrus’ now infamous “twerking” antics were the most memorable part of the VMAs, her performance was variously described as slutty, shameful, and plain old terrible. Noah Berlatsky of The Atlantic described the 20-year-old as both “awful” and “artless” while simultaneously pronouncing her counterpart Thicke to have “all the subtle vocal charisma of a constipated water buffalo.” Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s Morning Joe television show, called Cyrus “deeply disturbed” and accused her of having an eating disorder.
Although many decried the musical performance as nauseatingly bad, the duo’s antics came under fire for something else, too–racism. Some charged Cyrus’ twerking routine and use of black back-up singers and dancers as blatant cultural appropriation and denounced her as creating a sort of modern-day minstrelsy that served to reinforce racial stereotypes and black oppression. Journalists such as Noah Berlatsky and Hadley Freeman, along with noted feminist and cultural critic bell hooks condemned this show as flat-out racist. Freeman writes that Cyrus was “explicitly imitating crunk music videos and the sort of hip-hop she finds so edgy” in order to shed her implied image of a rich, white southerner. Jon
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Photo by Ryan Wolowski
Caramanica wrote in The New York Times that, in fact, the VMAs were yet another in a “banner year for clumsy white appropriation of black culture.” He describes Cyrus’ act as a “shambolic, tricksteresque performance,” one that “included plenty of lewdness and a molesting of Robin Thicke.” Many suggest that Cyrus’ racist routine didn’t lie simply in appropriating black culture, but also in her portrayal of what black culture is. Specifically, many had a problem with the way in which Cyrus used her black, female backup dancers and singers as props. Berlatsky posits that the backup girls who were being fondled by the singer served the purpose of embodying sex. By portraying these black girls in such a manner, Berlatsky, and many others believe that Cyrus adopted “the stereotypical image of black women as ultra-sexual to make herself seem edgy and sexual.” Berlatsky suggests that Cyrus’ performance was eye-opening in that it forces us to consider other iconic white entertainers through a racial prism as well. Take, for example, his article in The Atlantic in which he argues that Janis Joplin’s style of singing is racist because of her infusion of black stereotypes into her signing style and her blatant copying of black soul, gospel, and blues styes (a charge that has also been leveled at white artists from Elvis to the Beatles to the Rolling Stones). Berlatsky says that “equating clueless VMAs twerking with virtuoso blues singing doesn’t cheapen the word “racism”—it shows we need to use it more.”
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Personally, I don't see any difference between Miley Cyrus' performance and black-face
Not everyone sees it that way, however. “Janis Joplin is pretty awesome, actually,” said Kevin Gaffney, senior English major and Janis Joplin fan. “It’s weird to me that someone would say that her style is racist, but she isn’t. It’s just weird.” Berlatsky, in fact, wrote a followup to his original Atlantic article because of the significant amount of backlash he had received. Commentators like Berlatsky compared Cyrus’ act to a minsterly show, and others agree. “Personally, I don’t see any difference between Miley Cyrus’s performance, and black-face,” said Ashakie Phillips, a nurse practitioner student at Northeastern University. “She ridiculed African-Americans by solely utilizing them as props or ‘twerking machines.’” The treatment of her backups has much to do with the entire racism controversy, Phillips says, since they “weren’t even given the descent respect of showing their faces, as their faces were covered with teddy bear costumes, and their glutes were enlarged for facetious entertainment.” Berlatsky points to this overtly sexual portrayal of black women to exemplify his point that no matter what the initial intention was, it is the outcome that matters. However, while Berlatsky chalks the performance up to nothing more than racial stereotyping, others believe that these types of cross-cultural attempts can be viewed as a show of racial unification. “I didn’t really see [the VMA performance] as racist at all,” said Nisha Reilly, a senior sociology major at UMass Dartmouth. “Well, not until everyone kept trying to make it seem racist. Even
after that though, I didn’t really buy it. I was actually kind of proud to see all those black girls up there.” Reilly claims that as a black woman herself, she most likely would have caught the racial undertones if there were any. “They all just looked really stupid up on the stage,” she continued. “I just feel like if whatever racist undertone that everyone was complaining about was actually present, Miley would’ve at least tried to make herself look better than her background crew, which, I think she purposely didn’t. It was like she wanted to look like an idiot and she looked like she was having a ball making a complete ass out of herself.” Reilly speculated that if anything, Cyrus was trying to show that whites and blacks can get together in order to show “some form of a colorless unity.” Similar charges of appropriation of black culture have swirled around Madonna for years, with claims that she used black dancers and singers as a means to an end. Cultural critic bell hooks denounced Madonna’s Truth or Dare film as taking advantage of the predominantly non-white group of backup dancers that worked for her. To hooks, Madonna’s position of power over her black employees, coupled with her extreme self-centeredness and neediness reduced her dancers to nothing but “emotional cripples,” a term Madonna herself used to describer her
all-black, and largely homosexual dance troupe. Hooks also criticized Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” video, claiming that her use of the black church and a black saint was deliberately done in order to construct her image as racially tolerant and accepting, when in reality, she was attempting to appropriate the power of black masculinity. Many, however, have come to the conclusion that when Madonna called her dancers “emotional cripples,” it was out of a sense of fondness and comfort that allowed her to jokingly refer to them as such. Others suggest her supposed exploitation of homosexuals and non-whites was, in fact, a respectable show of tolerance, although whether all this was done deliberately to boost her image is up for speculation. Regardless of how people view Cyrus, or Madonna, the end result trumps the road taken to get there. If their attentionhungry ways yields a tolerance for minority races and sexuality as a result of their widespread popularity, then how can that be problem. As Madonna aptly says, “To get people to change, you have to turn the tables over.” d
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By Douglas McCulloch Layout by Alicia Boulos
s LGBT themes become more and more common in television, movies, and music, video games have become the latest entertainment medium to include them. Over the past few years, many high-profile games have included LGBT characters. Role-playing games including Mass Effect 3 and Fable 3 feature romantic side-quests involving gay and lesbian characters. But these changes aren’t without their share of controversy. The inclusion of LGBT characters in video games is nothing new. One of the earliest video games to feature a homosexual character is Moonmist, a 1986 text adventure game. One female character is mentioned to have been upset that her girlfriend ran off and married a man. Other video games of the 1980s and 1990s followed a similar pattern, featuring LGBT characters mainly for comical value. Production codes enforced by individual game publishers prior to the establishment of the Electronic Software Rating Board (ESRB) in 1994 heavily regulated the inclusion of gay characters in their video games. Versions of Asian games released to American audiences were also frequently edited to remove references to homosexuality, while others included references to certain character’s sexuality that reinforced stereotypes of effeminately and weakness. Although the country has come a long way since the 1990s with regard to the LGBT community, content in mainstream video games remains controversial. When Mass Effect 3 was released in 2012, there was outrage over the ability of the main character to develop romantic interests
towards other male characters (previous games in the series featured strictly heterosexual romantic sub-plots). Developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts found themselves under attack from not just the typical array of religious and conservative outlets but they also faced a backlash from their own fanbase. Days after the game launched, gamers bombarded aggregated game review site Metacritic with ratings of 0 out of 100. Ironically, while many reviews complained about the inclusion of the gay subplot, while a lesbian romantic subplot that was also included went largely ignored by the game’s fanbase. Another game that generated controversy was Dragon Age II, developed by the same company behind the Mass Effect series. Like in Mass Effect, there are gay romantic sub-plots, which were not taken lightly by some gamers. One gamer took to BioWare’s forum to express his disappointment with the inclusion of gay themes. He wrote that “in every previous BioWare game, I always felt that almost every companion in the game was designed for the male gamer in mind. [ . . . ] In Dragon Age 2, I felt like most of the companions were designed to appeal to other groups foremost, Anders and Fenris for gays and Aveline for women given the lack of strong women in games, and that for the straight male gamer, a secondary concern.” The post prompted a response that made headlines from BioWare senior writer David Gaider, who said, “the romances in the game are not for ‘the straight male gamer.’ They’re for everyone. We have a lot of fans, many of whom are neither straight nor male, and Dart
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they deserve no less attention.” Traditionally, the production of popular culture involves the minimization of risk in order to gain the most profit off of particular work. Sociologist David Grazian, in his papers about the structure and function of the culture industry, notes that “decision making in the media industries is primarily driven by the minimization of risk. In the absence of a crystal ball that can predict commercial success, decisions are usually made rationally in a context of risk aversion and caution.” Grazian cites several ways mass media companies minimize risk, including relying on the triedand-true success of previous products by producing sequels, and relying on a few yearly “blockbuster” movies to make most of their money. Game developers and game publishers are no exception to this rule. According to aggregated game review site Metacritic, of the top 10 best rated games of 2012, over half are sequels to previously successful games, and according to the NPD Group, every one of the top 10 best-selling video games of 2012 was a sequel. Blockbuster games are released every year as sequels. Call of Duty, Halo, and Madden are all blockbuster games which come out nearly every year and sell millions of copies worldwide within a day of release. Given the amount of controversy the mere inclusion of an optional side-quest involving male homosexuality generated in an AAA game title¸ it’s no wonder these themes aren’t frequently explored in games marketed towards mainstream audiences. In an industry dominated by profit margins, casting the widest net
possible, and minimizing risk, these themes prove too controversial. In an article from WhatCulture called “10 Most Offensive Gaming Moments Ever,” Simon Gallagher noted that “homophobia too remains a strong accusation against the gaming community, and while developers tend to avoid that sort of controversy in general, the lack of openly-gay characters in mass market releases suggests a lack of confidence in releasing such material. That might have something to do with the perceived reaction of the fans.” However, when the mega-corporations are removed from the equation, things become very different. Indie games are games published by the developers themselves, often through online digital distribution services. This business model bypasses the game publisher entirely, and aren’t even produced for the exclusive purpose of making a profit–some of the most critically acclaimed indie games are free or at a very low cost. Without the constraints and threat of controversy cutting into profits, many indie games explore themes including sexual identity and are able to cater to narrower markets than mainstream games. In a Polygon article titled “The queer games scene,” the authors note that “even as the mainstream industry might still be dominated by a single demographic, there is a huge diversity of people on the outside, on the margins, that have been creating their own video games for years, beyond the focus of mainstream gaming culture.” 2013’s critically acclaimed indie game Gone Home is a prime example of this
“Given the amount of controversy the mere inclusion of an optional side-quest involving male homosexuality generated in an AAA game title¸ it’s no wonder these themes aren’t frequently explored in games marketed towards mainstream audiences.”
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phenomenon. The game, which was developed by an independent company founded by former 2K Games employees, told the story of a college student who returns home from a trip abroad and finds the home her family had moved into while she was away empty. By exploring the home, the player uncovers a coming-of-age story involving the main character’s sister and her relationship with a female classmate. While games like Mass Effect 3 are criticized for an optional side-quest involving homosexuality, a game entirely centered around sexual identity and homosexuality received acclaim from game critics and players alike. Indie games are able to do something that mainstream games can’t: target specific minority audiences while maintaining their appeal to broader fans of indie games. In an article from Metro Weekly titled “Game Change: The State of LGBT Gaming,” author Rhuaridh Marr notes that “In terms of gay gaming, it’s indie developers [ . . . ] who will be leading the charge. The cheap access to development tools makes it easy for developers to craft specific stories and cater to markets that big-budget developers have yet to tap.” While mainstream video games concentrate on appealing to the largest audience possible, game developers outside of the mainstream are free to include narrower content and take more risks. As it stands, even the most prominent examples of LGBT themes in mainstream video games are relatively minor side-quests that players can choose to embark on. Whether mainstream companies take a cue from the indie developers remains to be seen. d
GAME
DEVELOPER
WHAT HAPPENED
Moonmist
Infocom
First instance of a homosexual (lesbian) character in a video game.
Caper in the Castro
C.M.Ralph
First gay-themed video game, a gay and lesbian murder mystery problem solving game for Apple Mac.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Nintendo
“Birdo” is described as a male who believes that he is a female and would rather be called “Birdetta,” thus the first transgender character.
Rise of the Dragon
Sierra On-Line
One of the first in-game establishments (called the Pleasure Dome) that caters to homosexual patrons.
Dracula Unleashed
FMV
Overtly homosexual “Alfred Horner” thought to be first live actor homosexual character.
The Orion Conspiracy
Domark
First computer game to use the word “homosexual” (to describe the main character’s son who was murdered).
Phantasmagoria 2: Sierra A Puzzle of Flesh On-Line
First playable gay character “Curtis Craig.”
Fallout 2
Interplay
First same-sex marriage in a video game.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Bioware
“Juhani” first gay character (lesbian) in the Star Wars universe.
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Marriage, Murder and Misogyny: What Gone Girl Says About Our Culture
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ast year’s much-hyped mysterythriller film Gone Girl has been rightly praised for its dark stylishness, smart writing, and compelling performances. However, the movie also reinforces some dangerous cultural myths about women, rape, and domestic violence. Gone Girl begins as a mystery: who is responsible for Amy Dunne’s disappearance? Her husband Nick is the prime suspect, and viewers are led to be convinced of his guilt by scenes from Amy’s diary entries, which depict the slow disintegration of her perfect marriage into an abusive nightmare. But as Nick grapples with the witch-hunt carried out by the police and the press, the big twist of the film is revealed: Amy is alive, and framing Nick for her murder. She meticulously planned her husband’s downfall, including falsifying the diary entries to bolster her story. When the Amy we’ve followed over the course of the first half of the movie is revealed as an invention, we’re left with nothing more than a vengeful psychopath in her place. Gone Girl’s Amy brings to mind another well-known femme fatale: Alex Forrest of the 1987 thriller Fatal Attraction, a
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career woman who becomes a psychopathic stalker after a one night stand with a married businessman who refuses to leave his family for her. Glenn Close’s portrayal of the character struck such a chord with pop culture that the term “bunny-boiler” was added to the Oxford English dictionary. As screenwriter James Dearden wrote for The Guardian, Alex was initially written as “an essentially tragic, lonely figure, worthy of our sympathy,” but had come to be seen as “a monstrous harpie” due to the changes made to the film for the sake of marketability. While the original screenplay depicted Alex as a more complex character who was eventually driven to suicide, test audiences demanded a different ending: one in which Alex becomes murderous and is shot dead by her lover’s virtuous, domestic wife. Thus, any moral or psychological complexity is erased in favor of a cathartic burning of the sexy-scary witch. Gone Girl goes through a similar transformation within the film itself. By revealing Amy as nothing but a straw-woman shedevil caricature, the Gothic, satirical portrait of the dysfunctions and resentments of marriage the film appeared to be in the first half becomes a simple tale of a hapless man
Photo by Gaborfromhungary on Morguefile
By Merri Sullivan Layout by Olivia Bean
only about 40% of rapes are reported to the police, and shockingly, only about 3% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail
destroyed by a villainous femme fatale. Nick’s transgressions—his disrespect and neglect of his wife, his affair with one of his students— pale in comparison to hers, so it is no longer a critique of marriage but just of this one particular psycho woman. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with a villainous woman. Gillian Flynn, the author of the book the movie was based on, writes on her website that the character was created to address a lack of “good, potent female villains,” who are “violent,” “wicked” and “scary.” Indeed, writing engaging and dangerous female villains is a worthwhile endeavor. In order to be fully represented as complex human beings in fiction, women can’t just be shown as heroes; fully realized female characters of all stripes are important, and that includes immoral and even evil women. But the Amy that appears in the film seems like less of a character and more of a hodgepodge of negative female stereotypes. Over the course of the story, Amy falsely accuses not one, but three men of rape, including one instance when she violates herself with a wine bottle in order to create “realistic” injuries. In all three of these instances, she is believed and rallied around by an eversupportive public. This contrasts strongly with numerous recent real-world instances in which rape victims were challenged to prove that their mode of dress, personality and sexual history did not somehow invite or make them deserve the rape. Despite common beliefs to the contrary, false rape accusations seem to be very rare. Although it is impossible to obtain completely accurate statistics about false accusations, the United States Justice Department says that they “are estimated to occur at the low rate of two percent -- similar to the rate of false
accusations for other violent crimes.” In fact, rape often goes unreported due to the harrows of going public and the unlikeliness of securing a conviction. According to the advocacy group RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), only about 40% of rapes are reported to the police, and shockingly, only about 3% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail. So it seems quite unlikely that any real-life Amy’s would get such supportive outcomes with their accusations. Amy’s adventures also include successfully accusing a man of stalking, later seducing that same man and slitting his throat to help her posthumously frame him for kidnapping her, making her husband look like an abuser and murderer, and, in the end, trapping Nick in his marriage to her by stealing his sperm and impregnating herself with it. Her resourcefulness in these endeavors could be seen as more plausible in light of Amy’s position as a white, upper-class semi-celebrity. Still, all of them together paint a portrait of Amy as every anti-feminist’s deepest fear: the woman who uses her irresistible sexiness to seduce and manipulate men and who can destroy their lives by “crying rape.” Ultimately, we need to believe that rape, domestic violence, and the murder of wives by their husbands aren’t as prevalent as they really are; that they’re mostly just false accusations, myths created by hysterical feminists and vengeful scorned women. We need to believe that sex is a source of power for women, rather than a frequent source of victimization. We need to believe that things aren’t as bad as they seem, because otherwise we’d have to take action, and otherwise it could happen to us. Amy might seem like a bogeyman, but she’s not. She’s a bedtime story. Dart
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SUCKER
FEMINISM OR EXPLOITATION? By Brooke Lyons Layout by Alicia Boulos
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W
hen Zack Snyder’s film Sucker Punch hit screens in March of 2011, many wrote it off as just another action-packed, sexualized male fantasy. Critics have taken the stance that the film is, in fact, antifeminist, with some like Anita Sarkeesian writing in Feminist Frequency going as far as to claim that it is, “nothing more than a steaming pile of maggot-filled, festering, misogynist crap trying to masquerade as female empowerment.” Full of flying bullets, hordes of enemies, and seemingly hopeless struggles, the film acts as a metaphorical depiction of the female struggle against patriarchal powers. But is it a feminist call to action and a critique of women’s portrayals in media, or is it merely another in a long line of exploitative depictions of women? On the surface, Sucker Punch tells the story of a 20 year old girl known as Baby Doll, who has been institutionalized in an asylum after accidentally shooting and killing her younger sister while aiming for her
abusive step farther. In the asylum, Baby Doll creates an alternate reality to cope with her situation. The asylum becomes a brothel, her fellow inmates becoming fellow whores. Within this fantasy world, Baby Doll crafts yet another fantasy world to escape from further abuses. As she dances up on stage in the brothel, she is transported to a place where she and her friends are ass-kicking warriors willing to kill or be killed in order to accomplish their goal– freedom. This, however, is only the veneer to an underlying feminist message. The entire film can be read as a metaphor of the patriarchy in our world. From Baby Doll’s abusive stepfather to the abusive orderlies masquerading as brothel owners and clients in her fantasy world, Baby Doll and her companions are surrounded by men using male privilege to control women. The accidental murder of Baby Doll’s little sister is symbolic of her loss of innocence; she becomes aware of her step father’s abuses and how powerless she is against him, as
Photo by emrahozcan on Flickr
PUNCH
a girl might become aware of man’s power over woman. Things seem hopeless as her stepfather bends the truth to turn himself into the victim. As a result Baby Doll is transferred to the asylum, left with no power of her own. As Baby Doll performs her first dance and enters her first fantasy world as a warrior, a nameless man many refer to as “The Wise Man” greets her. This character is often help up as more proof (as if any is needed) of the films anti-feminist message: how could this be film possibly feminist if a man is the one guiding the characters and telling them what to do? The dialogue, however, between Baby Doll and the Wise Man is telling. When The Wise Man asks, “What can I do for you?” Baby Doll responds, “nothing.” He then rephrases the question: “What are you looking for?” When Baby Doll replies, “freedom,” the Wise Man shows her weapons and explains what she will need to complete her journey. Like the objectives of a video game they are objects to be obtained. The final objective is a nameless mystery. The Wise Man stresses the point, “Only you can find it, and if you do, it will set you free.” This echoes the message that Madame Gorski, the girl’s motherly guide in the brothel, tells Baby Doll before she begins her dance, “Your fight for survival starts right now…You don’t think you are strong enough? You are. You are afraid, don’t be. You have all the weapons you need, now fight!” According to Nick O’Leary, a student who recently saw the film, “although [The Wise Man] seems to represent their savior, he’s really just a means to an end and is there to tell them to empower themselves and make their own decisions.” A common symbol used by Snyder in his film is the ever-present mirror, or reflection. There are countless shots of characters looking into mirrors, or seeing reflections in someone’s eyes. One shot is filmed in such a way that the viewer does not know what side is the mirror, a frequent motif of the film that challenges the viewer to try to discern what is real and what is not. It’s important to note that in all of Baby Doll’s fantasy worlds, her enemies are not human. She and her companions face reanimated, steam powered soldiers, orcs, and
robots, suggesting that men in the real world who oppress and abuse women are inhuman. The three worlds in which the battles take place are also reflections of patriarchy. The first is in the trenches of World War I, while the second is a medieval fantasy realm. Each of these settings suggests that patriarchy is an outdated, ancient, or obsolete way of thinking and in need of destruction that can only come at the hands of progressive, determined women. The third world, which features robots with mirror faces, is a desolate picture of a future where to be human is a disadvantage, and is an image of what may come to pass if patriarchy is not eliminated. The anti-feminist arguments often focus on the costumes of the girls, suggesting that their tight, mini-skirted, skin showing outfits is simply a way to objectify and sexualize women, regardless of how strong they might be. However, the movie was filmed in such a way that specifically avoids objectifying the women. Snyder states himself that, “[The girls] might be dressed sexually, but [he] didn’t shoot the movie to exploit their sexuality. There’s no close-ups of cleavage, or stuff like that.” Moreover, as Baby Doll enters the both the asylum and the brothel, her possessions are taken and she is handed her new outfits by men. Although some view the film as contributing to the objectification and sexual exploitation of women, others, like fan Elise Minkler, “definitely see it as a feminist movie.” According to her, “It’s not too often you find a movie that has one, let alone numerous women who are not portrayed as damsels in distress or are just there for a love interest. They’re strong, developed characters who fucking kick ass and look good doing it!” As Sucker Punch closes out, hero Sweet Pea continues her narration that had started at the beginning of the film. She asks us as the screen fades to black, “Who holds the key that can set us free?” Then, repeating Madame Gorski’s line from earlier says, “It’s You. You have all the weapons you need. Now Fight!” The film is a call to not stand idly by in compliant oppression. At the very least, it is a call to question the oppressive forces holding women down, and to believe in a woman’s inner strength as a source of power. d Dart
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“You gotta get out there”
HOW TO MAKE IT IN THE
ART WORLD
By Cameron Aguiar Layout by Stephanie Pacheco
IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY in the Chelsea District of New York City. There are galleries to your left and right filled with works from up-and-coming artists. Throughout the streets of Manhattan there are countless lobbies and entry ways of high-end buildings adorned with art. But have you ever stopped to wonder what it takes to get your own stuff out there in the art world? Bryan McFarlane, a professor at UMass Dartmouth, knows a thing or two about getting out there in the art world. Bryan has shown around the world, including 30
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throughout China, London, and New York. Bryan always makes it a point to tell his students to get out there, to see what is going on in the art world. Go to shows and museums to see what has been done and what is being done. Bryan is very much an advocate for traveling and trying to get shows and sell work throughout the world. “I went to China for a program” Bryan said, “I ended up loving it and became successful there.” ‘You never know if you don’t try’ is a phrase that serves people well in the art world. As an artist, one has to maximize
their possible outcome, because you never know where you will be a hit. The art world is also a business world, and Kurt Wisneski, a professor and head of printmaking at Umass Dartmouth, knows a thing or two about the business of art. Wisneski has made it a point to inform his students that pricing is a major factor. Being an artist is like being a one person business, and as a business you must know pricing. “You have to set up factors for your costs and the gallery’s cut in order to make a profit,” Wisneski said. “If you price too high you won’t sell, too
“I ended up in love and uccess.” becoming a s
Photo by Bruno Cordioli
“you just have to find the right pla ce to pro mote you rself and go f or it.” low and you won’t profit.” As you become more known, then prices can be raised. On the other side of the business aspect, as an artist one must know how to make connections. Networking is a must. As much as anything else in the art world you need to know the right people. More often than not, the people who gain success are the people who happened to have some sort of connections. Umass Dartmouth student and practicing photographer, James Carpenter, is learning and reaping the benefits of making connections. James has gained a bit of a
following over his years at Umass Dartmouth, as well as having his work featured around the New Bedford area. “You gotta get out there,” James said. “You just have to find the right place to promote yourself and go for it.” To a lot of artists, getting yourself out there might seem uncomfortable, or downright unpleasant, but it’s on of the most important aspects of doing art. Making it in the art world takes not only talent, but a bit of luck and skill. But if you apply enough business savvy, you can start getting out there and selling some art. Dart
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MY TIME IN AFGHANISTAN
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By Rufai Y. Shardow Layout by Alicia Boulos
M
y five-ton army truck, which I was driving with a female soldier, Private First Class Aguilera, was the next one in the convoy line behind the Afghani truck, a Nissan Frontier Runner Xe-V6 when it was blown to shreds by an IED. I was shaking. My heart was pounding and I was frozen in my seat until Aguilera, yelled at me. “Let’s go and help them.” “What?” I called back. “We have to attend to the injured Afghani soldiers before medical evacuation gets here,” she said. I was just in shock. Another day, I remember vividly an Afghani interpreter bleeding profusely from a gunshot in the stomach. The medic center had its windows open for fresh air and sunlight and I could see what was happening through the windows. He was in pain and moaning. Half of his body was wrapped in bandages all filled with blood. This was Afghanistan.
Photo by DVIDSHUB on Flickr
I
received my basic training at Fort Jackson, North Carolina, and then proceeded to Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Fort Lee, Virginia. This was where I was trained in my military occupational specialty, petroleum. Private Aguilera joined the army in 2004. I don’t know why she joined, but I had known her two years before this deployment. We were in the same company together so I had many different missions with her. She loved being a soldier and was dedicated to her job as a truck driver. After training, I was stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, in a small town called Leesville, population of 7000. It was the place where different brigades came to train before deployment either
to Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere. During some of our training, Arab men, women, and children were employed for roleplaying and depicting what to expect either in Iraq or Afghanistan. In December of 2005 I received my orders to be deployed to Afghanistan. It was the first time I had ever travelled without a passport, just a military ID, the itinerary, and my M249–a mini machine gun that weighed about 22 pounds–and my new army combat uniform, one that, among other things, serves to prevent third degree burns and helps with insect borne diseases.
“I could see what was happening through the windows. He was in pain and moaning. Half of his body was wrapped in bandages all filled with blood.” I was among the few chosen to be deployed early. In fact, I was asked if I could leave with the first group of soldiers. We had to leave early to take over operations from the 503rd Airborne Regiment based in Italy because their duty tour was coming to an end. My brigade was the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Polk. In preparation for deployment, we had one week of physical check and formalities, including immunization and eye checks, and we were given malaria pills to take every two weeks to avoid contraction of the disease. A sober reminder of what might happen to some of us, all soldiers also had to complete a will and had to inform our families
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before our deployment of what our will entailed. I remember telling my sister, since my parents were not here in the US, that in my will all my properties would go to her. If married, half of the insurance money would have gone to my wife, but since my wife had filed for divorce when I was in boot camp, my mother would receive it all. “I am leaving for Afghanistan soon,” I told my sister over the phone. “When?” She asked. In her voice I could tell she was worried. “I have received my orders but there is no specific date yet.” I was born in Ghana, and so usually speak to my family in our local dialect called Hausa. Throughout our conversation, we spoke in Hausa. “If you see two dressed officers at your doorstep it is never good news,” I said.
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fghanistan is a country even the Russians had to leave after years of war. I remember seeing old Russian tankers in remote villages during some of my squad’s missions. Most days, though, I just hoped and prayed to make it to the next day during every operation. Some nights, our Forward Operating Base (FOB)–areas built in remote villages to support tactical operations–were bombarded with rocketpropelled grenades by the Taliban and we had to resort to our bunkers for shelter. Prior to my deployment, I knew nothing about Afghanistan apart from the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. It is a landlocked mountainous country and one of the driest in the world. Its winters are harsh, usually beginning in January, yet has the most beautiful snow covered mountains. From a distance, they looked like they are touching the sky. I loved driving through these mountains. It was negative fifteen degrees when we first arrived in Bagram, the main air base for foreign troops before leaving to Kandahar. We had travelled in a C-130, an airplane so loud that we had to use ear plugs for take-off and landing. It is by far the most uncomfortable airplane I have ever flown on. During the summer, the heat is intense and there are frequent sand storms. On one of our many missions, we had to reduce our speed limit to 5 miles per hour because we could not see what was in front of us due to the dusty sand. The heat can be brutal; sometimes 120 34
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degrees Fahrenheit, and in all my time there, I only experienced one torrential rainstorm. Unfortunately, as is usually the case in Afghanistan, something good quickly turned into something bad–our camp became a swamp after three straight days of rain. The first six months of my deployment was boring but great because I stayed in the camp most of the time. I was always on one of the many towers set up for security. If I wasn’t mounting the towers, I was driving a four wheeler, checking all the generators to ensure they hadn’t run out of petroleum. My first place of duty was in a remote area called FOB Sweeney where Army Rangers and Special Forces stayed. It was named after Staff Sgt. Paul Sweeney who was killed in Musa Qalax on October 30, 2003. About 98% of Afghanistan roads are not paved making travelling difficult, but easier to place explosives. Improvised explosive devices are mostly handmade and they can be deadly. They are not easy to detect despite the fact that we have equipment that is supposed to be capable of detecting them.
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he mission that led to my nearly being killed by an IED explosion started on an early frigid morning as a joint assignment with the Afghani army. Expecting the mission to be a long one because of the poor conditions–what should be five-hour journeys usually end up becoming twenty or more hours–I made sure the truck was fueled, and stored with food and water. My company was responsible for eight Humvees, two 5-ton trucks, and six Afghani Nissan Frontier Runners. I was the driver of one of the US army trucks, and each of the Afghani trucks had a driver, a commander in the front and six others in the bed of the Nissan. They had their AK47 weapons and their regular uniforms. Our Humvees were designed to protect soldiers’ lives. The rear and front tires were very far from the seating areas so that in case of an explosion, the most damage would be to the rear or front tires. The windows were one foot by one foot on both sides of the vehicle with threeinch-thick glass. Each Humvee also has a gunner. The gunners are protected with shields that can rotate 360-degrees, making it easier to move the 84 pound
machine gun. The barrels of the machine gun or “50 Cal” are 45 inches in length and the shooting range is approximately 7000 meters. It can fire 400 rounds in a minute and when in cyclic firing mode it can fire 450 to 500 rounds in a minute. Although it can shoot long distance, its most effective range is 1500 meters.
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he sights of explosions were chaotic and horrible. The armed transport called a “Cougar” took the lead followed by another army vehicle then an Afghani Nissan Frontier and a Humvee in that order. Before we left, we were briefed (including the Afghani armies) to stay in exactly the same track of the vehicle in front of your truck. As we drove through towns and bad terrain, the Afghani soldiers ignored this advice. Ill-trained and unprofessional, they were weaving in and out of the already established single file. Half way to our destination, the Afghani truck in front of me exploded ten feet into the air. The truck had just triggered a roadside bomb and was shredded into pieces. When the truck came back down, it was spun around, and at least ten feet from its original spot. One of the back tires rolled down the hill in flames. The other tire was separated from the axle. The two front tires had deflated, their rims crushed. Broken glass was everywhere. The doors could not be opened because of the damages. The roof was caved in. Miraculously, the vehicle landed on its front tires, and the driver and the commander crawled out and lied flat on their backs. To me, it was surreal. The site became foggy with dust filling up the air and I came to a screeching stop about five feet from the explosion site, just missing the giant crater now formed in the ground. At first I didn’t notice Private Aguilera screaming at me from her seat, “we need to help them.” I just sat there. I saw the Afghani soldiers running up the hills in all direction looking for those responsible. “Shardow did you see that?” She said. In the army we addressed each other by our last name. “Yes, Aguilera I saw that.” “Oh My God!” She said.
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rivate Aguilera and I were the first U. S. troops to be at the site. Four out of the six Afghani soldiers were in critical
Photo by the U.S. Army on Flickr
“If you see two dressed officers at your doorstep it is never good news”
condition. They needed to be air lifted right away. Although we went to assist them–every US soldier is an expert in CPR because we take classes frequently, we know how to tie a tourniquet, how to take or give blood, and what position to lay a casualty–but their conditions were so dire we could not touch them, move then, or perform CPR. The first man was lying stomach down. His right arm was broken. His left arm laid about three feet from his body. We could not do much for him except to tell him the medics were on their way. We then moved to the second man. He was even worse. He had first degree burns on his chest and part of his body. He was bleeding from the nose and was lying flat on his back. His neck was bent slightly to his shoulder. His dismembered arms were far away from his body. He could not move. They all looked dead
from a distance. The third and fourth victims were also bleeding profusely from most part of their bodies. I am not sure, but I think they all had internal bleeding. The paramedics arrived and immediately started to perform emergency medical procedure. Though I couldn’t believe it based on how the soldiers looked, the medics were able to keep the wounded alive and in a stable condition. The rest of the troops went off and combed the area for the perpetrators. The Cougar came back to clear the area for the helicopter. I kept close watch over the injured and helped the medics. It took half-an-hour for three helicopters to arrive. One was for air lifting and the other two were UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopters hovering around us and pulling air security. The injured were placed on stretchers with straps to ensure they are well secure. Aguilera and I helped the medics load the wounded onto Dart
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the helicopter. After they were secured, the helicopter took off followed by the two Black hawks. We then continued our mission. Our platoon sergeant, Jeffrey Isom, warned the Afghani soldiers to stop driving like a maniac. “Not only are you at risk, but you’re also jeopardizing the mission,” I remember him saying, scolding them. Sergeant Isom, had been in the army for fifteen years, yet this was his first deployment. He looked young for his age, with a slim physique and a positive attitude. Maybe, it is all the consistent training he had gone through. He probably weighed 140 to 150 pounds. I have always had a good relationship with him. He was a very good listener and always smiling and sharing jokes.
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served four years in the United States army, though I am not a US citizen. Afghanistan was a long journey away from the United States. In Afghanistan I was twice removed from my homeland–once from my home country of Ghana to the United States, and again from my adopted country the United States. What I hope to remember from my experience in Afghanistan is not the tragedy of war but the beautiful night missions driving through Kabul, Kandahar, and Bahgram, the cool mountain breezes, the disquieting sandstorms, and meeting other foreign army nationals. I will share both the bad and good experience of
the war with my wife and my unborn child. I will consider the innocent women and children who were lost in mistaken drone and night attacks. I was almost lost to this war, or perhaps I was but don’t realize it. There were many American soldiers like me who had suffered physically and emotionally. Worse off, there were soldiers who had lost their limbs or died. Others who witnessed such horrible deaths suffered from PTSD or even committed suicide upon arrival back to the United States. I was recently treated for PTSD and went through three months of therapy. Sometimes, I do have nightmares. Before the therapy, when studying at the library on campus I had to face toward the entrance because I had feelings of being in danger. I hated being close to windows because I felt like I was going to be shot. However, since the therapy, my nightmares have ceased and I’m not disturbed to an open window or being at the library. I once met the then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld in Afghanistan. He is very short and talks very slowly. He came for some private meetings with higher ups and came to boost our morale. I don’t know if it worked, but it was a journey I will always remember, mainly because I put my life on the line for my new adopted country. Allah bless us all! d
Rufai Shardow is a native of Ghana and a former student at UMass Dartmouth. He graduated in 2014 and is now the park ranger at the New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park. He lives in Fall River, Massachusetts with his wife and daughter.
Photo by The U.S. Army on Flickr
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GLIDING ON THROUGH
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n a mildly cold Friday, Kary Church and I went to The Stephen Hetland Memorial Skating Rink, or simply referred to as “Hetlands.” As we laced on our skates, I noticed that mine were beat up, five-dollar rentals, while Kary’s were the Glass Slipper of ice skates–beautiful white boots with thin dainty blades and a zig-zag toe kick in the front. As we made our way to the ice, Kary effortlessly skated on, while I clung to the wall much like an eighty-year old grandmother needing the assistance of a walker. Slowly I eased myself off of the wall, only to grab onto Kary’s arm. I tried to blame my inability to skate on other things. “This ice has too many marks in it, I’m going to fall. It needs that Zimbabwe thing.” “No,” Kary laughed. “It’s perfect ice—it doesn’t need a Zamboni.” While I awkwardly moved my legs one in front of the other, Kary slid across the ice with grace, poise and familiarity. Kary was first introduced to the ice at the age of three because her cousins played ice hockey. “I loved it,” she said, and it became her first sport. Although her childhood was filled with involvement in other sports like cheerleading, track, soccer, and baseball, skating was her true love. From ice dancing, synchronized skating or individual skate, Kary was involved with every aspect of the sport. Trials of Life and Skating Being a dedicated skater meant having practices on Saturdays and Sundays at 5am. “My Mom and I did that for three years straight. Three years,” she sighs. Her mother drove her to practices and
competitions, and always provided brutally honest feedback. “If I wanted to know how I did after a skate, I would go right up to my Mom and ask her. It wasn’t just, ‘Oh, you did so great.’ It was, ‘Well this went wrong but you will do better next time.’ Her feedback always helped me.” Sports were never just an activity for herself. “It was me and my mom’s thing,” she said. Her mother, having been born with a deficient leg that was amputated when she was 13, was never able to be active. Although Kary’s mother was actively involved with every aspect of Kary’s sporting career, her dad was never really one to come to her skating performances or show any type of interest in her activities. “I guess he just wasn’t interested or was working or something,” Kary said with a shrug. Though, she didn’t not seem bothBy Ashley Wojtunik ered by that fact, it turned out Kary’s Dad Layout by Olivia Bean had some issues himself. “He had a drinking problem. Once, cops showed up “He had a drinking problem. Once, cops at our door and my Dad showed up at our door and my Dad was was there in nothing but there in nothing but tighty-whities, with tighty-whities, with a TV over his head, threaten- a TV over his head, threatening to throw ing to throw it at the cops. it at the cops. They ended up arresting They ended up arresting him—still wearing only his tighty-whities.” him—still wearing only his tighty-whities.” After a couple of rotations on the ice, my ankles were tired and I needed a break. I went off to the side, but encouraged Kary to continue on. “Go do something fancy” I said, seeing the hesitation in her eyes. She looked around at the people who joined us on the rink, a group of high school girls busy taking selfies and kids clinging to their parents because they are Dart
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again for the first time. She had taken the loss of skating badly and could not even bring herself go to high school hockey games. “I couldn’t go to the rink,” she recalled. A New Start With the loss of skating from her life, Kary needed to focus her energy elsewhere and so turned with full-fledged commitment to her next activity: cheerleading. Kary had gotten an early start in cheerleading at the age of five. “I was too little to be on the team so they made me a mascot. I did Pop Warner all the way up until high school.” However, the squad at Kary’s school was not one that was known to make headlines. “We were awful,” she states. At every competition her freshman year they made last place. The coach decided she wanted to turn the squad around and actually start winning. Tumbling classes and gym practices four days a week were made mandatory. Girls were also randomly being invited to join the squad in hopes that different people could benefit the team. Prospects were even brought in from the wrestling team. “My coach was like, ‘Hey, you! You look like you can lift people! You can be on the team.’ And the dance team, ‘Hey! I’m sure you’ve got some rhythm!’” And thus a team was formed. The girls funded their own trip to Disney World for three years straight and came in either second or third each time. While cheerleading was the foundation of Kary’s high school career, it never took the place of skating. “I don’t think I ever really loved it—just the performance aspect of it.” What Kary really loved, of course, was skating. When the time came to look at colleges, Kary’s ideal school would have been one that offered a collegiate skating team. This would have given her a chance to skate again and not have to be burdened with the expenses. Unfortunately, schools that offered such teams would not have benefited her academically. She dreamed of building prosthetics and needed a school program that would support that. After
Background and first photo by Benson Kua on Flickr
afraid of falling. She made her way out onto an unoccupied section of ice. Slowly a leg twirled around as she tried to find her center of gravity. From there, her leg whipped in front, giving her the powerful momentum to continuously twirl, gaining speed as she brought her arms in close, her dirty-blond hair waving behind her. As her spin finished, the group of girls clapped for Kary, who skated back up to me. She brushed off the turn, “It looks cool, but it really isn’t anything.” Although clearly skilled, Kary still “Skating is one of the most expensive remains self-conscious sports there are, with lessons up to four about her skating. That times a week, a requirement that skaters might be due to the fact stay in tip-top shape, and the need pay that her skating dreams took a turn for the worse for increasingly expensive coaching when she least expected in order to continue on.” it. “When I was in ninth grade I had to stop skating.” The way she looked down as she uttered those words makes it seem as if she was reliving the pain of that realization all over again. “I didn’t really know it at the time, but we had money problems. My mom would avoid paying by dropping me off and never coming inside.” Skating is one of the most expensive sports there are, with lessons up to four times a week, a requirement that skaters stay in tip-top shape, and the need pay for increasingly expensive coaching in order to continue on. Money problems had been slowly building. “We had won Nationals the year before in California and I was the only one who didn’t have any family come out to support me because my mom could not afford the plane ticket. When coaches were assembling the new team, I didn’t make the cut. They said they assumed I wouldn’t be able to afford it. From there, I found out my mom owed them a few months’ worth of payments. We didn’t have the money to pay so we had to write a letter to the board explaining the situation and I was not allowed to come back.” Kary got a faraway look in her eyes, almost as if she was absorbing the words
Personal Photo on left by Kary Church
being forced to leave an expensive school after one year, Kary realized that money– something that had been an barrier to success her entire life–was now getting in the way again. For Kary, relief from her never-ending financial problems came from the most unlikely source–the Army. She would never have thought so, but tagging along with her friend Ming to meet with an Army recruiter would be the answer to her problems. “I went just to be a friend and left wanting to enlist.” A few days later Kary became part of the Army Reserves. She realized the Army would provide financial assistance to help pay for her schooling, plus, “[She] figured having a military background wouldn’t hurt, and knowing what it was like to get kicked out of school for money once, didn’t want it to happen again.” Boot Camp Boot Camp was going to be a six-month long investment and not being able to Skype loved ones seemed like it would be a long, lonely stretch of time. I asked Kary if she was ever worried that it was going to ruin her relationship with her boyfriend Oscar. “No, I mean in our case it made the heart grow fonder.” Engaging in a “Dear John” type of relationship, Kary and Oscar could only exchange letters and it was there she found out what a good guy he really was. “I found out from my mom’s letters that he’d come over and help her out, do things for her, take care of my brother… He doesn’t even like my mother!” Boot camp also proved to be the place where Kary was going to become her strongest both physically and mentally. “The first thing I thought was, Crap, Kary you need to get in shape. Before I left for boot camp, I was able to do two sit ups….two.” Kary was on the track team in high school during her off-season from cheerleading, so she was able to draw on that experience to reach the fitness level that enabled her to complete boot camp. Plus,
there really is no better motivator to get in shape for the Army than having an officer yelling in your face. It was also what the officers suggested to if anyone got depressed at boot camp—“If you get depressed, do push-ups.” Words of advice for anyone to remember if they are having a tough day. The Ocean Blades With Boot camp conquered, and financing school less burdensome, the one thing missing from Kary’s life now was skating. Recently, she found a local team through “Facebook stalking.” The Ocean Blades synchronized skating is a three year-old team, but this year they wanted to up their ante. The team wanted to go to Nationals, which were being held at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence. One of the biggest expenses with skating is travel. Kary is a Rhode Island native, so with Nationals so close by, she felt this was finally her chance to pick up where she left off. “I thought, This is it !“ The team was comprised of girls ages 19-29, some of whom had never done synchronized skating before. Kary made the team without even having an official tryout. “I went to try out and the coach was like, ‘Oh, Kary, I remember you. You’re all set,’” she laughed. Ironically, this team’s main focus was not to win. “We just wanted to place and have a good skate.” For Kary, doing what she was passionate about and seeing the other competitors was her main focus. “Getting to watch the other teams at Nationals is one of my favorite parts; these are teams that are nationally ranked and have gone onto worlds. Just being there is enough.” I saw Kary the weekend after nationals and ran up to her outside of the Liberal Arts building. “How’d you guys do?!” I ask. “We came in twelfth….out of twelve teams,” she smiled, not the least bit upset about it. “Just to be there was amazing.” d
Kary Church seen here on the left graduating from AIT training in October of 2013 with friend and “bunkmate” Jocelyn Amigon on the right.
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Wounded Warriors The Continuing Stigma of PTSD in the Military
“ I
just swallowed that knot in my stomach and did my job. Still, I just couldn’t get the idea of nuclear annihilation, or the deaths of millions of people, out of my head,” said Former Air Force Lieutenant Charlie Pacello. The stigma of PTSD inside and outside of the military kept Charlie from seeking help. The first time Pacello recognized a problem was when he was training in a mobile unit in charge of mission readiness, what the military calls “capability for integrated tactical warning and tactical assessment and nuclear force management.” They had a mission ready nuke and were awaiting orders. “I looked around and said this is not what I signed up for.” Thomas Murray, a former Marine Staff Sergeant, Vietnam veteran, and nuclear assessment team member who worked on the Marine Wing Weapons Unit, said his trauma stemmed from combat in Vietnam as a grunt. Working with nukes never bothered him, though, and when asked in an evaluation what he would do if he was ordered to drop a bomb on his hometown in the Bronx, New York, Murray simply replied, “I’d follow orders.” When asked what was available to Vietnam veterans to help with PTSD, Murray replied, “Zilch. Not a damn thing.” According to him, the military has come a long way since the days of Vietnam, but “these guys still need a lot of help.” “The programs are out there,” said Army Specialist
Dave Russell, who has served tours in both Kosovo and Afghanistan. “It’s just stigmatized so much. They’ll tell you where to get help, but then you’re seen as weak when you go there.” Russell stresses that the Pentagon has created a lot of good programs but the negative stigma still attached is disheartening. Although more programs are in place now than were available in the 1970s, the only screening for PTSD that military personnel get is a questionnaire upon returning from a combat tour. According to Russell, “You have to answer questions like, ‘do you have suicidal thoughts?’ or ‘do you think about harming your significant other?’ Meanwhile, they’re sitting right there and you just want to go home.” When asked what needs to change, Charlie Pacello replied, “They need to acknowledge that there is PTSD. This is not just a stigma. We have a responsibility to provide all the tools they need to return whole to their families,” Charlie said. For David Russell it’s a matter of training. “Superior officers need more education on the subject,” he said. For Murray, though, the problem is the fact that war continues to rage, and soldiers are simply not prepared for it. “Stop enlisting bodies to throw at these wars,” he said. “Train these guys to know they’re going to kill. Maybe prevent a breakdown before it happens. And if it does, you better damn well help them.” d
“They’ll tell you where to get help, but then you’re seen as weak when you go there”
By Nicholas Murray Layout by Alicia Boulos
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Photo by Marines on Flickr
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PLAYING THE
CARE GAME By: Michael Burke Layout by: Alicia Boulos
By Michael Burke
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Layout by Alicia Boulos
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Photo by NVinacco on Flickr
Cheaper and safer than drugs, yet struggling to find a niche in the shadow of big-pharma, local medical distributors try to cut through increasing insurance restrictions while American medical practices grow more industrial and less patient based. “The big issue is that [the pharmaceutical industry] is all about playing the game, all about statistical risk, it’s gambling,” said the former pharmacist Andrew Dellinger. Dellinger, who has a PHD in Pharmaceutical medicine, left his practice to become a sales representative for a local, independent durable medical equipment (DME) distributor for Progenix, whose products range from crutches to tens units. “Our goal is to provide alternatives to oral pain medications,” said Nick D’Ammora, Andrew’s boss and a Holy Cross graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Biology. He started his practice as an independent DME distributor for the Progenix company. However, with current medical insurance practices his company struggles to deliver patients their necessary equipment, while highly addictive pharmaceuticals such as oxycodone are readily available. “It all comes down to money,” said Dellinger. “You see, insurance breaks down its benefits into four categories: hospital visits, emergency care, routine care, and pharmaceutical care. The problem is that DME doesn’t exactly fit into one of these four categories. So what insurance agencies will do is set a maximum benefit amount for DMEs.” Insurance companies might reserve as little as $750 for DME products Dellinger said, and once that point is reached, the funds end. The industry he said, has an established hierarchy of medical devices. At the top of the list are devices such as implants like knee replacements and pacemakers, next is pharmaceutical products, and at the bottom is DME products. “It’s a niche market,” said D’Ammora. This hierarchy of medical products limits patient access to less risky and effective treatments. “Our treatments have no adverse effects to the kidney or GI tract, no drug to drug interaction,” said D’Ammora. Recent studies have shown that certain DME equipment has proven effective in clinical trials. In a 2011 study Dr. David Hungerford, a professor of orthopedic surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, along with a number of other doctors found that patients who utilize DME products properly, as compared to those who don’t, “receive substantial improvement much more quickly.” Despite the benefits, DME products are losing ground to the more lucrative pharmaceutical products. “It’s become increasingly challenging to get DMEs to
patients,” said Dellinger. “Most of our day is spent tracking down documentation, going through more and more medical records because now a simple prescription doesn’t suffice for a patient to receive a DME product.” For narcotics however, a simple prescription is all that’s necessary.
“THE MOST COMMON DRUGS WERE NAME BRANDS SUCH OXYCONTIN, VICODIN, XANAX AND SOMA. THE CDC REPORTED THAT THESE DOCTOR-PRESCRIBED PHARMACEUTICALS COLLECTIVELY CAUSED MORE DEATHS THAN HEROIN, COCAINE AND PSYCHOACTIVES COMBINED.”
If a patient is suffering from lower back pain, pharmaceuticals are a much simpler treatment option in terms of paperwork, but with proper DME use the patient could easily avoid the use of drugs altogether. With the ease of accessibility, pharmaceutical drug abuse has become an epidemic. In 2009, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 37,485 prescription drug related deaths in the United States. The most common drugs were name brands such OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma. The CDC reported that these doctor-prescribed pharmaceuticals collectively caused more deaths than heroin, cocaine and psychoactives combined. Despite these issues Dellinger and D’Ammora aren’t against pharmaceutical drugs. “Without a doubt they have their place,” said Dellinger. D’Ammora explained that prescription medication is a necessity, especially after surgery. The drugs “decrease inflammation” and “make pain tolerable after surgery.” “A patient can take a narcotic and be able to do physical therapy which he might otherwise not be able to.” Even with all of the challenges, small distributors like Nick D’Ammora’s are still determined to trudge through the jungle of paperwork and aid in healthy patient recovery. “We’re here to provide options for patients apart from pharmacological methods,” said D’Ammora. “We want to help patients in the pain process. We’re here to help.” d Dart
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The Pain of the Gain By Michael Burke Layout by Andrew Tornetta
A
t a local gym, as the clock counts down, a middleaged woman wheezes after pumping hard for five minutes. She has 10 minutes to go. Her face gushes sweat, her arms are red and swollen, her ankles hurt, her knees are buckling, and her throat is so raw that breathing hurts. She gases out, steps off the elliptical panting and tries to avoid the face of her trainer. Much like millions of Americans, the woman is trying to lose some weight. This is an extremely difficult and arduous process that is often overlooked when people are assessing the nation’s weight problem. According to a study done in 2010 by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 35.7 percent of the adult population in America is obese, 33.3 percent are overweight, and more than 32 million people have diabetes. Despite attention to the problem with programs like Fat Camp and The Biggest Loser, and supermarket aisles bulging with diet friendly food, the problem is only getting worse. “Those types of shows are misleading,” said Darcy Gauvin, a 25-year-old personal trainer at the YMCA in Easton Massachusetts. “The people on the shows work out all day, they’re in a controlled environment, they don’t have a say in what they eat. They don’t learn how to change their habits.” Trainers and doctors agree that lifestyle changes are the only way to get overweight 44
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people back to a healthy weight, but that road can be incredibly difficult. A recent study by Joseph Schroeder, the director of the behavioral neuroscience program at Connecticut College found that highfat/high-sugar foods are just as addictive as cocaine. When someone ingests sugar a surge of opioids and dopamine affect the brain’s pleasure center in the same exact way drugs such as crack, cocaine and heroin do. Scientists believe this is a result of our paleolithic ancestry. When our species survived as hunter gatherers, the sucrose derived from sweet fruits and berries was rare and extremely valuable to our bodily systems. So our brains were programmed to release dopamine and opioids whenever we ingested the precious nutrients.
“35.7 percent of the adult population in America is obese, 33.3 percent are overweight, and more than 32 million people have diabetes.” Schroeder was quoted in Connecticut College News saying that this “may explain why some people can’t resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them.”
Even after overweight individuals change their food habits, the battle is often far from over. A multitude of ailments including diabetes and high-blood pressure can persist—creating problems for those people looking to work out. “With patients with diabetes, they tend to have blood sugars that are higher than normal, and it’s not as good of a building material for healing,” said Janet Paul, a physical therapist from Easton Massachusetts. Less efficient building material means longer recovery periods and more injuries. “Obesity contributes to probably at least 40% of the injuries we see,” said Paul. More injuries, more downtime, more weight gain—it’s a vicious cycle. For individuals who are suffering from weight problems, the solution is simple but difficult—they need to change their habits and adopt a healthier lifestyle, said Gauvin. Along the way there may be many people who can help, but ultimately the battle is within the individual.
“Despite attention to the problem with programs like “Fat Camp” and “The Biggest Loser,” and supermarket aisles bulging with diet friendly food, the problem is only getting worse.” “It’s about guiding,” she said in reference to her job as a personal trainer. “I encourage small changes.” Gauvin explained that she had once suffered from a weight problem herself. “I had a soda problem,” she said. “But I started by making small changes. I switched from soda to diet soda. Then from diet soda I went to soda water, then to crystal light and then to water.” “I don’t believe the drastic changes stick because they don’t attack the larger issue, which is the habit. Fad diets do not work,
the only thing that works is a lifestyle change.” Lifestyles also create a collateral effect in children. In 2010 the CDC reported that almost 17 percent of children in America were obese. With the rise of this juvenile obesity came the rise of juvenile type II diabetes, which have severe impacts on a child’s growth and development. From the outside it may just seem like laziness, but to someone fighting through obesity, the road can be just as difficult as any other type of handicap. The good news
is that millions of people are struggling together and help is available. The path is painful, but for many, the answer can be as simple as gym shorts and vegetables. “Patience and determination play an important role,” said Gauvin. “I have clients who come in and say they want to lose 30 pounds in a month, and that’s just not healthy and it won’t work,” said Gauvin. “But most of them just want to get back to things they used to be able to do—play with kids, get up without pain, walk up and down stairs.” d
Percentage of Obese Americans in the last 40 years 1970 1980
12.1% 12.7%
1990
20.5%
2000 2010
28.3%
35.7%
Statistics according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
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Photo by e-Magine Art on Flickr
APOCALYPTIC STRAIN
People want a pill to solve all their medical issues, but with the increase in antibiotic resistant genes in bacteria, the pills we have now are beginning to become less effective.
By Amanda M. Butcher Layout by Aimee Gonsalves
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a study showing that, in the last few years, reports of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have exploded in the United States. The pathogens have been evolving, causing infections that can no longer be treated by drugs. Even a certain strain of Streptococcus, or strep throat, a common infection among children and teens is becoming resistant. The CDC report states four initiatives to prevent the spread of such bacteria: “Preventing infections from occurring and preventing resistant bacteria from spreading, tracking resistant bacteria, improving the use of antibiotics, and promoting the development
of new antibiotics and new diagnostic tests for resistant bacteria.” According to the report, each year more than 2 million people contract infections that cannot be treated by antibiotics, and at least 23,000 deaths occur as a result of their antibiotic resistance. However, according to a Tufts University study, “Antibiotic resistance is a natural phenomenon.” A strain of bacteria evolves to be the most antibiotic resistant it can be so that it lives to pass on its better genetics to subsequent generations. As subsequent generations of bacteria either die from the drugs or don’t die because of their evolved genetics, engineers and biologists scramble
“This may bring us back to Dark Ages status, when one epidemic spreads like wildfire and wipes out half the population, and we won’t have the technology to stop it.” to find a new antibiotic. Eventually, the only type of bacteria that infects humans will be one resistant to all strains of antibiotics. Mark Silby, a professor at UMass Dartmouth and a researcher of antibiotic resistance believes that this is a difficult field to predict, as bacteria are always mutating and multiplying. One can never know how a population of bacteria will change. “It’s hard to know if you can go backwards,” he mused. Can we decrease the usage of antibiotics? “It depends
on the nature of the bacteria themselves.” The reduction of antibiotic usage could increase the population of bacteria sensitive to antibiotics because oftentimes, resistant strains are more vulnerable in other ways. It then becomes a matter of the “survival of the fittest” adage. “The reality is,” he said, “we can’t stop using antibiotics.” This may bring us back to Dark Ages status, when one epidemic spreads like wildfire and wipes out half the population, and we won’t have the technology to stop it.
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In order to avoid such a catastrophe, the CDC’s report has identified groups of bacteria along with their descriptions and threat levels to the United States. Among those listed are the CRE bacteria, a group that includes a strain of E. coli that are resistant to many types of drugs. Approximately 50% of people infected by this strain die because of lack of available treatment. Another bacterium on the list is Clostridium difficile (C. diff), which has killed at least 14,000 people because current treatments kill the good bacteria in patients’ gastrointestinal system as well as the bad. Research is trying to predict what kinds of effects certain treatments will have on humans’ intestinal flora. Vanni Bucci, in the biology department of UMass Dartmouth, is working on creating a program with the goal of finding just that, as well as what probiotics could be used to maintain homeostasis. One of the best ways to avoid antibiotic resistant infections is better hospital hygiene. Because many of the antibiotic resistant infections are contracted in a hospital setting, the CDC recommends patients ask their doctor if they’ve washed their hands. Silby suggests that we “use a slew of different approaches” to treat infections. One new area of interest is using phage therapy, in which doctors use 48
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bacteriophages, or viruses that only affect bacteria, to destroy the bacteria. Silby is working on an approach to disarm the bacteria instead of killing it. “There would be less pressure to resist because we’re not killing the bacteria,” he explained. “Theoretically, it works.” The problem with such an approach is that it requires a level of funding that colleges and other researchers have difficulty getting access to. The CDC is working on prevention of the illnesses, but doctors and researchers encourage us to do our own part. We must be smart about hygiene, avoid antibiotics where we don’t need them, and buy meats that aren’t enhanced by hormones. The best advice is to avoid any antibiotics if at all possible, and the Tufts University study backs that up. If the pressure on bacteria disappears, the population may build up without antibiotic resistance, and we will again be able to treat people with terrible infections. “We live in an age of complacency,” Silby said. “Medicine will save us. Doctors give prescriptions to make people feel better [but] we have to learn to curb our enthusiasm. We have the benefit of hindsight, knowing the problems before we make them. We should pay attention to that.” d
Photo by nathanreading on Flickr
EACH YEARH MORE THAN 2 MILLION PEOPLE CONTRACT INFECTIONS THAT CANNOT BE TREATED BY ANTIBIOTICS, AND AT LEAST 23,000 DEATHS OCCUR AS A RESULT
Sneaker Culture
By Matthew Medeiros
Photo by Supergiball on Flickr
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eff Beland, an avid sneaker collector, camped out 10 hours in the Warwick mall parking lot for a limited edition pair of Air Jordan sneakers in freezing January temperatures. That was 2003. Today the sneaker culture is bigger than ever. According to a 2014 Forbes article, the Jordan brand alone made $2.7 billion in 2013, up 11% from the previous year. That gigantic sum of money doesn’t even include parent companies like Nike or Adidas that endorse today’s star athletes like Lebron James, Kevin Durant, and Derrick Rose. Sneaker culture began with Michael Jordan and his eponymous sneakers. Jordan’s first shoe, the Nike Air Jordan 1, was banned by the NBA in 1984 for violating uniform rules. Because of the controversy surrounding Jordan’s sneakers, Nike used the publicity to advertise the shoes and the brand took off. “I remember when Jordans came out, kids thought they would make them jump higher and play like Mike,” said 37 year-old sneaker enthusiast Tyson Lopes of Dartmouth, Massachusetts. “Sneakers really took off after that. People had to have what Mike and other players were wearing.” Why do so many people want these shoes? “I collect sneakers because I like to keep up with fashion and its way to express yourself,” said Beland, who owns over 250 pairs of sneakers. “There is nothing like walking by a group of people and the thing they talk about is the limited shoes on your feet,” he added. Jerry Jones, a 30 year old from Avon, Indiana says, “I have always been obsessed with shoes, it has always been fun.” To him, buying sneakers is all about fashion. “I’m into fashion so I wanted to have different sneakers for different outfits,” he said. Recently, in order to reduce the potential for violence surrounding release dates for limited sneakers, many stores, including Footlocker, have adopted a raffle system. “The raffle system
was put in place for the safety of the people and it helps avoid fights over who was in line first,” said Beland, who works at Footlocker in addition to collecting shoes. “The raffle also saves our company money that we would’ve had to pay for police detail,” said Footlocker employee and fellow sneakerhead Craig Guidry. Not everyone is happy with the raffle system, however. “When I first started collecting you could walk into any store and get the sneakers you wanted, no line, no raffle, no waiting. Nowadays it’s who you know or the luck of the draw with raffles,” said Beland.
“The Jordan brand alone made $2.7 billion in 2013, up 11% from the previous year. Jones said, “I hate raffles, I haven’t won one yet. I remember showing up to the mall at 7:45 AM and getting any pair I wanted. Now, the sneaker game is being pimped by resellers.” Many people have taken advantage of the sneaker craze. EBay is littered with resellers, people who buy the limited sneakers only with the intention to sell them for profit. Certain pairs can fetch upwards of $1,000 and many sneakers sell at nearly double retail value only days after they release. With so many more releases today than in the past, it’s easy to see why people are capitalizing on the sneaker market. “When I started collecting there were about 8 to 12 Jordan releases a year,” said Beland. “Now that’s only about two months worth of releases, never mind the KDs [Kevin Durant’s signature line], Kobes, and Lebrons.” If these sneakerhead are any indication, it looks like the sneaker craze is here to stay. d Dart
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By Joshua D. Botvin Layout by Olivia Bean
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The City’s Transformation New Bedford stands on the midst of an identity transformation. Far from its legacy as the most prominent whaling port in the world, the city is now looking to rebrand itself as an emerging art community. Long associated with its history as a global fishing port, New Bedford is scarred by a troubled past and bad reputation. However, those involved in the art community are spearheading its cultural resurgence and new personality. Some, like New Bedford Open Studios director Karen Snyder, believe the city has already begun to move in the right direction. “It used to have such a horrible reputation. For years every time you would say ‘New Bedford’ they would bring up the Big Ben rape, but the arts have really helped.” nyder, a former art teacher and current activist for the arts, has been directly involved in this quest for cultural revival for over ten years and is currently involved in advocating for the survival of the city’s artists. “I would like to meet with the mayor and people in other organizations to see if the city could support artists, because supporting art organizations isn’t the same as supporting artists.” Artist support, as opposed to support for the arts generally, comes in a variety of ways, from advertising the artistic appeals of the area to allowing for the tax-free purchase of art. According to Snyder, the latter is crucial. “You have these people who are living at or below the poverty level and are getting asked multiple times a year to donate to charity. And the way that the tax law is, the artist can’t even write it off as a donation. It is just worth zero. If they gave it to somebody else and they donated it, then they could write it off. And I don’t think a lot of people are aware of that.”
Both Photos by Mark Chadwick on Flickr
Another issue plaguing local artists is the presumption that they will work for free, in exchange for the promise of “exposure,” which does little to pay the bills. “People don’t expect musicians to come and play for free,” explains Synder. She also advocates for exposing children to art. “Because of budget cuts they have had little exposure to art during their education… AHA and what NBOS does helps to change that.” This altruistic outlook has not only become commonplace to artists in the area, but the very staple for their survival. The Model Gallery Gallery X, a gutted and refurbished church turned makeshift gallery, has become a microcosm for all art in the area. Now approaching its 25th year in operation, it is an example of what artists must do to make a cultural impact. Chuck Hauck, the founder of Gallery X, and John Nieman, one of the last of the original members, discussed their origin and insistence on originality. “In the 1990s the only other arts organization was the Bierstadt Society, which were weekend painters who would do pretty little seascapes. And I can respect that, but we were right out of college and more looking to push the envelope,” recounts Nieman. “They didn’t even have wine at their openings,” added Hauck with a chuckle. The pair, a couple of freethinking selfdescribed hippies, were reviving a beat culture long left behind. They looked to start the gallery with little more than a love of art and a positive outlook. But visions aside, their operation would have never taken off without the support of their community. “We both had a mutual circle of friends who were still in the area,” explains Nieman. “Artists that were looking for anywhere to show their work, a place
where you could meet other artists.” In 1994, when rising rent forced them to move from their original location on Spring Street to the iconic church they now call home, it was a move that, according to Hauck and Nieman, would not have been possible without continued support from the community. A generous, art-loving reverend rented the church to them at an affordable rate, and the understatedly titled Tuesday Night Warriors worked round the clock to get the gallery up and running as quickly as possible. Turquoise walls, lines of pews and the pipe organ all had to go. “We would get together, get a case of beer and just roll walls or whatever project needed to be done,” recounts Hauck. “We owe a lot to our volunteers and our benefactors,” says Nieman. “It’s not necessarily the members who help, but the friends,” adds Hauck, “Those with different skills who always come together.” “It seemed like whenever we would have a specific project like the steeple or renovating the basement or making the place handicap accessible,” Nieman describes, “that was when our friends who were business owners would pull out the checkbook.” This was not the only stroke of good luck they received. When they first started, they relied on the policy of allowing a new curator to install every show. This, unfortunately, hindered any sense of continuity, and often left phones unanswered and messages unreturned. Then they applied for, and received a grant from the Island Foundation, which allowed them to hire a full time director for the gallery. That changed everything. As Nieman puts it, “There were many cracks for things to fall through…a thousand ways for things to go wrong, and as soon as we had that grant, things really tightened up. We had consistency.” Dart
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This consistency came at just the right time. New galleries were sprouting up throughout the area, bringing not only competition but a stronger sense of community and, more importantly, more reasons to visit. “We were excited, because we were the first,” says Hauck. “So many people said it would never work in New Bedford…but we didn’t know any better and we didn’t care, we were having fun.” However much fun they were having, it was often overshadowed by the clear fact that they lacked funds. Repeatedly battling to make rent and always seeming to fall behind on upkeep, “It’s just been a constant fundraiser,” laments Hauck. The most recent challenge is the leaking roof. “We’ve got a grant that we’re working on now,” explains Hauck. “It’s a match grant to fix the roof…if we can raise seven thousand we’d get fourteen. That would fix the roof, the steeple and after that we’re looking to get solar panels…hopefully we can have solar panels and pay off our mortgage at the same time…that’s a dream. But then we’ll have to raise money for something else.” Despite this, they have never stopped their efforts to bring the most innovative and progressive art to the community. Accepting all newcomers and basing their business on inclusion, they are hoping to continue influencing their city. An U.G.L.Y. Reality One gallery in particular, U.G.L.Y. Gallery, seemed to be drawing inspiration from the 52
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progressive and inclusive nature of Gallery X. For the last four years, it was a center of local and foreign urban street artists, a group known for its edgy and dynamic style marked by graffiti, sticker art, and defiant interpretations of popular culture. Owners Jeremiah Hernandez and David Guadalupe Jr. looked to create their own subculture of artists within the local community, in effect recreating what Gallery X was able to do 25 years ago. Unfortunately, a lack of economic support forced the gallery to shut down. But, on its last night, at an event titled “Forever U.G.L.Y. Thank You New Bedford,” wellwishers crammed the gallery. On the walls hung the leftover paintings and sketches, drawings and graffiti that had never sold like Sinatra’s mug shot, Bart Simpson’s brain, and the iconic “Missing” Milk Carton, each more brilliant and colorful than the last. The DJ spun, beers were drunk, and tee shirts and prints sold like mad–at only ten bucks a piece, they were the only items any guest could afford–but no one wanted to leave without claiming at least one last memento. The culmination of these four years may have been nothing more than a short flicker in the life of the city, but for these few hours U.G.L.Y. Gallery existed just as it had always been envisioned, enriching the lives of those involved. “What I like about the U.G.L.Y. Gallery is that they really reminded me of what Gallery X was in the early years,” says Nieman. Much in the same tradition, “We started
Top Photo by Mightkill Jacksome on Flickr
Both photos of U.G.L.Y. Gallery sticker art work.
Right Photo by http://artery.wbur.org
the gallery with $200,” says Hernandez. “We have never taken a penny of public funding.” Despite the similarities however, the U.G.L.Y. Gallery just did not seem to have the same luck as Gallery X. “We’ve never really been successful,” explains Hernandez, “We just always make it seem that way and wear smiles even though [things] look[ed] ugly. The business and where it is and the economic climate that we’re in just doesn’t allow us to execute what we need to do to be a successful commercial gallery, so closing was our best option.” Drawing on a much younger style and thus customer base, the two seemed to be without the financial support of the community. When asked about public funding, Hernandez replied, “We were never in a position to access it. They dog and pony us and tell us how important we are. But every chance they had to tell us, ‘sorry we can’t help,’ they did.” Despite this, Hernandez is not bitter. Although the decision to close was far from joyful, he still remains hopeful for the future. “It’s definitely not terrible. We had a fouryear run that was amazing. We look forward to whatever the next opportunity is. But all good things come to an end. Maybe the city will support the next U.G.L.Y. Gallery that comes around, although it won’t be us.” That is exactly what the future of New Bedford’s art scene will rely upon. The artists who put themselves out there for the public can only do so much. Without a strong sense of support from the community in the form of buying art from local artists, more galleries will go the way of U.G.L.Y. d
“We were excited, because we were the first,” says Hauck. “So many people said it would never work in New Bedford…but we didn’t know any better and we didn’t care, we were having fun.”
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By Aubrie Brault Layout by Sarah Sams
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was 9 years old and I felt like I was experiencing my first heart attack. My head was spinning and I was sweating. I was sitting on a halfpainted bench–alone. I had chickened out and was feeling more cowardly than the Lion of Oz. It took a few moments of reasoning and a flashback to a time when I’d survived a nasty complication with a tonsillectomy to remind me of the “tough little cookie” my father always said I was. I couldn’t live in fear. So I jumped back in line with my dad and my best friend. Sitting in the car, strapped in tight, the speakers boomed “6, 5, 4...” At this point I thought of what my dad always said, “Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.” I thought, “If I’m going to die at least I’ll go out having fun.” Needless to say, I survived the unexpected twists and upside-down turns, the 180-foot drop, and the dare to keep my eyes open and arms up. Not only did I survive, but that day was the start of my addiction to an adventure that has been a staple of American culture for decades–the roller coaster. The origins of the roller coaster can be traced back to the icy slopes and mountains of 18th century Russia. People navigated them using wooden, metal, and straw laden sleighs. As time went by, they became more creative, adding for example small bumps. Despite numerous accidents, its popularity grew and by the mid-19th century, architects, designers, and engineers began creating bigger, and safer structures. The popularity of roller coasters continued to skyrocket through the early 20th century spawning renown coasters like the “The Cyclone” in Coney Island. During the 1920s there were more than 1500 roller coasters in operation in the United States alone.
However, during the great depression interest in roller coasters waned, and it wasn’t until the 1970s, when King’s Island’s “The Racer” became a sensation, that interest began to come back, setting off what many consider to be the second “golden age” of roller coasters. Today, coasters are the main attraction at amusement parks around the world. According to ABC news, more than 300 million people per year ride roller coasters, generating over $9 billion a year in revenue. Roller coasters also continue to stretch the limits of engineering and thrill seeking. Rides like “Top Thrill Dragster” at Cedar Point, and “Kingda Ka” at Six Flags Great Adventure have drops of over 420 feet, and accelerate from 0 to 120+ miles per hour in under four seconds! Roller coasters are popular because they give us an experience that is truly outside of our normal, everyday existence. Mary Doherty in Amusement Parks as Landscapes of American Culture explains that theme parks work “as an antidote to the ordinary and routine.” In other words roller coasters fulfill our desire for escape, and for bigger and better thrills. There is no specific fear of roller coasters, but having one is lumped in with “veloxrotaphobia,” or relating to common phobias such as fear of heights, fear of death and so forth. However, for many people, the adrenaline rush of a coaster trumps their fears. For some people, taking the risk is positive because it shows that sometimes we have to face things head on and just do it. It’s hard, but it’s a great feeling when you do. Maybe riding a 400-foot coaster is just a little out of your comfort zone, but think of it as developing character and inner strength. A roller coaster experience could be just the thing to help you learn something about yourself. I was for me. d
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z t a r B , e i b r a B By Kelsey Wilbur
“In 1965, Slumber Party Barbie was released with a scale set permanently to 110 pounds and a diet book that had one rule: “don’t eat.” 56
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onsider the following statistics from a recent article on Barbie by Galia Slayen in the Huffington Post: A human-sized Barbie would be 5’9” and weigh 110 pounds with a 39” bust, an 18” waist, and 33” hips. Her BMI would classify her as anorexic and she would most likely not have a menstrual cycle. Barbie’s body proportions would be so off that she would have to walk on all fours because her frame would not be able to support her standing upright. Yet, according to current research, the average actual American woman is 5’4” and weighs about 160 pounds with a 35.9” bust and 37.5” waist. To put that in perspective, Barbie’s waist alone is 51% smaller than the average American female’s. According to Mattel, two Barbie dolls are sold every second worldwide leading many to conclude that since her introduction in 1959, Barbie has had an outsized impact on girl’s body image, both positively and negatively. “Barbie and body image as a whole is a much larger conversation than most people realize,” says Professor Kristen McHenry of the Department of Women’s and Gender
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Studies at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. “Little girls are bombarded with unattainable body ideals and have a lasting impression on them.” Barbie’s image sets a standard that demonstrates our social understanding of what it means to be beautiful. The young girls who idolize Barbie are exposed to standards that Professor McHenry says are harmful. “The beauty ideal these girls are growing up with are physically impossible. No one can fulfill them and that’s the truth everyone fails to understand.” According to a study by National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, more than 90 percent of those who have eating disorders are women between the ages of 12 and 25. Thus, it is not a surprise that girls who look to Barbie as an example may develop eating disorders. After all, if Barbie were a person, she would be considered anorexic. In 1965, Slumber Party Barbie was released with a scale set permanently to 110 pounds and a diet book that had one rule: “don’t eat.” While the scale was removed in later versions young girls were exposed to the unhealthy suggestion to not eat in order to lose weight. Young girls are not equipped to understand the differences between healthy and unrealistic body standards. A study conducted globally by Dove in 2005 reported that one in ten girls recalls being concerned about her overall physical
Bratz Doll.
Photo by Kawaii Cupcakes on Flickr.
appearance between the ages of 6-11 years old. Cassie Remillard, a 19 year-old sophomore, remembers when she started to become concerned with her body image. “I remember being five or six and wanting to wear the belly shirts that were in style at the time but being scared my stomach was too big.” In 2009 Jeff Eldridge, a Democrat in West Virginia’s House of Delegates, proposed legislation that would ban the sale of Barbie dolls because they “place an undue importance on physical beauty to the detriment of the intellectual and emotional development [of girls],” and in 2003, Saudi Arabia banned Barbie, calling her “a threat to morality.” While Barbie has had over 130 different careers–teacher, astronaut, and doctor, just to name a few–the main focus has always been on her clothes
and accessories. As feminist writer Kate Smurthwaite mentions in the documentary Barbie: Life In Plastic, “Barbie was never launched as, ‘Here’s a beautiful doll that’s a doctor.’ It was always, ‘Here’s this beautiful doll with all the pretty dresses. The careers were an afterthought.” Instead of teaching and encouraging young girls to follow their dreams and aspire to have careers, the Barbie brand places emphasis on what purse or shoes the doll is wearing; beauty is the most important part of being Barbie. While Barbie may be an iconic doll, other dolls have recently come into popularity. Although dolls such as Bratz have more realistic bodies and also represent several different races, while Barbie, as Professor McHenry points out, “enforces whiteness as beautiful,” Bratz are much more sexualized than Barbie has ever been, which could make them even more detrimental to a young girl’s body image. Bratz dolls were recently named one of the worst offenders in sexualizing girls, based on a report from the American Psychological Association. The report states: “The objectified sexuality presented by these dolls, as opposed to the healthy sexuality that develops as a normal part of adolescence, is limiting for adolescent girls, and even more so for the very young girls who represent the market for these dolls.” These dolls wear midriff baring tops, short, almost obscene shorts coupled with high heels, which have been called “hooker chic,” as well as promoting “precocious sexuality.” From her physical appearance to her hundreds of “careers” Barbie no doubt influences young girls. However, young children should not be restricted or hurt by the limiting gender roles that society places on them. Instead of moving towards yet another oppressive model of toys for young girls, like the Bratz dolls, we might do as McHenry suggests and work to inspire women and girls intellectually and creatively regardless of body type. d Dart
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