The Wellesley Globalist: Volume 3 Issue 1 "Framed"

the Wellesley Globalist Volume III, Issue 1

Framed

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Letter from the Editor As in previous issues of The Wellesley Globalist, we’ve posed a general theme to our campus of writers who’ve stunned us with their interdisciplinary curiosity. “Framed,” whether applied to Roger Rabbit or Putin’s propaganda, points to the question of perception. The visual nature of perception led our writers to consider subjects ranging from media portrayal of teen suicides to the skin-lightening industry in India.

We would like to thank our readers, writers and supporters as we need the participation of each to continue producing issues that challenge Wellesley students to think beyond the Wellesley “bubble.”

Sincerely, Tessa Kellner Editor-in-Chief, The Wellesley Globalist Photo by Amandine Fromont

Editorial Staff Editors-in-Chief Rebecca George ‘15 Tessa Kellner ‘17 Vice-Presidents Michelle Namkoong ‘17 Managing Editor Stephanie Kossman ‘15 Production Editor Wendy Ma ’17 Layout Editors Neha Doshi ‘15 Danni Ondraskova ‘18

Photography Editor Sarah Berry ‘16 Art Editor Annie Wang ‘17 Website Marketing Manager Shan Lee ‘16 Website Content Editor Eryn Halvey ‘18 Business Director Rene Chan ‘17 Publicity Chair Anne Conron ‘18

Associate Editors Siqi Gao ‘15 Andrea Aguilar ‘16 Karen Moorthi ‘18 Seohee Lim ‘18 Treasurer Caylene Parrish ‘17 Events Coordinator Grace Hu ‘17 Copy Editors Shannon Lu ‘16 Audrey Choi ‘18 Front Cover Photographer: Mojia Shen ‘18

Photo by Shannon Hasenfratz

Table of Contents Art and Culture

3 6 11 13 19

Science

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Does Early Fame Frame Child Stars’ Futures?

Women of Vision: A History of Women in Photography Gender at the Boundaries of Art, Religion and History The Arranged Blind Date Teen Suicides in the Media

A Silent Arms Race

Politics and History

27 31 35 39 47

Beauty

53 59

Rounding Up the Usual Suspects: Political Polls and Question Framing Centerfold America: The Land of the Free?

On the United States Involvement in the Middle East Ataturk: an Example of Stability of the Middle East Framing Russia’s Nationalism through a Historical Lens

The Coronation of the “White Lady”: Globalization of a Beauty Standard India’s Pressure to be Pale

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Photo courtesy of Kevin McShane Paparazzi crowding around Miley Cyrus, age 16

Does Early Childhood Fame Frame Child Star’s Futures?

By Meg Babikian

“W

hen people start acting like they’re famous, that’s when they start losing it,” argued Justin Bieber in an interview with Vibe Magazine’s Lola Ogunnaike in 2012. This year, the young star was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, and prescription medication. Upon posting his $2,500 bail bond, Justin Bieber waved to his fans from the top of an SUV.

Child and adolescent stars like Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Amanda Bynes, Lind-

sey Lohan, Britney Spears, and many others seemingly lose their sense of self in their transition to adulthood. What do these celebrities learn about themselves, or about the world, that leads to their self-destructive behavior?

In June of 2013, Mara Wilson, star of the movies Matilda and Mrs. Doubtfire and self-proclaimed “recovering child star,” was interviewed

by NPR’s Neal Conan on “why some child actors lose it.” “(T) hey get this level of fame and

success and they think that that’s going to last forever, because they get used to it,” Wilson comments, “and as they get older, it’s taken away from them, and they’re not sure who to blame, and they don’t know how to do anything for themselves.”

“Normal” kids have the chance to grow and discover who they are without feeling the eyes of millions of people on them. Meanwhile, childstars develop a sense of identity, self-image, and self-esteem

based on the undying love and support of their fans. After their career ends (or changes) due to their evanescently youthful appearance, they begin to lose jobs, or they have to reinvent their image.

Their career does not prepare them for this change, though; they are not sure how to proceed into the next stage of adolescence or adulthood in a functional way because they’d had the support of their fans no matter what they did. Alas, what results is their self-destructive behavior.

Although it’s easy to blame the former child stars themselves, it seems almost inevitable for the stars to have these kinds of troubles. Even though Wilson may not have reached the level of celebrity of the Olson Twins or Lindsay Lohan, she’s had enough experience to understand the effects of fame on the young and famous. Wilson’s NPR interview followed the publica-

“

tion of an article on Cracked. com called “7 Reasons Child Stars go Crazy,” in which Mara blamed parents primarily for their children’s dysfunctionality.

What do these celebrities learn

about themselves, or about the world, that leads to their self-destruc tive behavior?

”

Parents make careers out of their children’s acting, and the child skips childhood in order to provide for their family. This shift in the parent-child relationship generates troublesome questions for the family down the road. When children are earning millions of dollars for their acting, who should be compensated? Of course these child stars have done most of

the work, but how much should the parents be compensated for their role in their child’s career?

What is the right balance?

For Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys and brother Aaron Carter, a relationship with their “momager”—their mom-manager, a term that Kris Jenner coined in reference to her own relationship with her children—was too much. In an interview on 20/20, Nick Carter said that he felt “starved for that attention of a motherly figure.”

Momager Jane Carter first focused on the career of her older son, Nick, but when he started to become closer to his father, Jane started to work on 10-year-old Aaron’s career. At age 16, after separating himself from his “momager” and reestablishing his relationship with his father, Aaron began to wonder why he had not yet seen a dime of the money he’d earned on dozens of tours and album sales. He

Photo by Bryan Frank Security guard’s view of paparazzi beyond the barricades

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Photo courtesy of Bryan Frank Lindsay Lohan, age 28, child star of The Parent Trap

threatened to sue her, although he did not follow through.

In 2003, Jane Carter tried to write a book, ironically entitled “The Price of Fame.”

Commenting on Aaron’s relationship with his mother, his father Bob Carter says, “She’s broke. And she’s using Aaron and me and everybody else to stir up publicity so that she can sell a book of lies.”

Although both of the Carter brothers have struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, their mother seems to be adversely affected likewise by the culture of celebrity and wealth. “Money can change people,” Nick observed of his mom, “especially when you don’t come from it.” Jane Carter’s desire for more success and more wealth destroyed her relationship with her family.

She forgot that her sons were not only marketable products, but people as well.

In contrast to the Justin Bieber’s cockiness and Jane Carter’s obsession with her sons’ success, Wilson acknowl-

edges that she “never really realized how much of an impact [she] was having on other kids’ lives, and still to this day, [she’s] not sure how much of an impact [she] really had.” Wilson’s awareness of her distance

Photo courtesy of Jack Nickel Crowd of fans waiting on-set outside American Idol for David Archiletta

from reality is perhaps what preserved her sanity. The most important factor in staying grounded as a celebrity might be to know what you don’t know, and to remember the world you came from.

Women of Vision: A History of Women in Photography

By Victoria Yu

Julia Margaret Cameron: “Sadness” (1864). Royal Photographic Society. Depicted person: Ellen Terry (age: 16)

T

he National Geographic Society chose eleven women photojournalists for an exhibit called Women of Vision, which has since been exhibited around the country.

Currently exhibited in Michigan’s Cranbrook Institue of Science until December 30, Woman of Vision will then travel to the Palm Beach Photographic Center from Jan 21 to March 22, 2015.

Elizabeth Krist, National Geographic Senior Photo Editor, took on the challenging task of selecting images that

best represented the broad portfolios of the 11 extraordinary photographers. She curated Women of Vision as a tribute to the spirit and the ambition of these journalists and artists who have created experiences for millions through insightful, sensitive, and strategic use of the camera.

The photographers took us on a feast of images from diverse geographic locations across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to images near home in the USA. Their work has garnered global recognition with inter-

views and news coverage by the BBC, NPR, The WSJ, and The Washington Post.

While this exhibition highlights women’s participation in photo documentary and photojournalism in contemporary times, it’s also worth noting that women have participated in photography since the very origins of the process.

It was in northern Europe that women first entered the business of photography, opening studios in Denmark, France, Germany, and Sweden in the 1840s, while women in

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Britain from well-to-do families developed photography as an art in the late 1850s. It was not until the 1890s, however, when the first studios run by women opened in New York City.

In the United States, women first photographed as amateurs, several producing fine works that were presented at key exhibitions. They produced not only portraits of celebrities and Native Americans but also landscapes, especially since the beginning of the 20th century. The involvement of women in photojournalism had its beginnings in the early 1900s as well, but it only slowly picked up during World War I.

Constance Fox Talbot, wife of Henry Fox Talbot, one of the key players in the development of photography in

the 1830s and 1840s, began experimenting with photography as early as 1839. In France, Geneviève Élisabeth Disdéri was an early professional in the photography business. Together with her husband André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, who is remembered for patenting the carte de visite process, she established a daguerrotype studio in Brest in the late 1840s. Bertha Wehnert-Beckmann was probably Germany's first professional female photographer.

In 1843, she opened a studio in Leipzig with her husband and ran the business herself after his death in 1847.

Thora Hallager, one of Denmark's earliest female photographers, practiced in Copenhagen from the beginning of the 1850s and produced a fine

Erika Larson, Sami (portrait of 14-year old Elle - Li Spik, modern reindeer herder) Walking with Reindeer

portrait of Hans Christian Andersen in 1869. In 1864, Bertha Valerius in Stockholm became an official photographer of the Royal Swedish Court. In fact, there were at least 15 confirmed female photographers in Sweden during the 1860s. In 1888, Anna Hwass became the first female member of the board of the Royal Photographic Society, one of the oldest national photography societies, which was founded in London before moving to Bath in 1979.

One photographer widely recognized for pioneering artistic photographic work is Julia Margaret Cameron. Although her interest in photography did not begin until 1863 at the age of 48, she consciously strived to make photography an acceptable art form, taking hundreds of portraits of children and celebrities.

In Japan, Shima Ryū and her husband Shima Kakoku opened a studio in Tokyo around 1866. In the spring of 1864, Ryū photographed her husband, thereby creating the earliest known photograph by a Japanese woman. In New Zealand, Elizabeth Pulman assisted her husband George in his Auckland studio from 1867.

After his death in 1871, she continued to run the business until shortly before she died in 1900. Zaida Ben-Yusuf, a photographer of German and Algerian descent, emigrated from Britain to the United States in 1895, established a portrait studio on New York' s Fifth Avenue in 1897, and photographed celebrities there. Ruth

Helen Johns Kritland, “Signing of the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors” (1919) Harriet Louise (1903–1940) was the first female photographer active in Hollywood; she ran Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's portrait studio from 1925 to 1930, photographing numerous stars including as Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford.

Most early female photographers focused on portraits, but some also began developing street and landscape photography. British-born Evelyn Cameron (1868–1928) took an extensive series of remarkably clear images of Montana and its residents at the end of the 19th century. Rediscovered in the 1970s, they were published as Photographing Montana 1894–1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron.

On the other hand, Berenice Abbott (1898–1991) was best known for her black-and-white photography of New York City

from 1929 to 1938, created under the Federal Art Project.

A selection of her work was first published in book form in 1939, titled Changing New York, which has since provided a historical chronicle of many now-destroyed buildings and neighborhoods of Manhattan.

Peter E. Palmquist, researcher of the history of female photographers in California and the American West from 1850 to 1950, found that in the 19th century some 10% of all photographers in the area were women, while by 1910 the figure was up to about 20%. In the early days, most women working commercially were married to photographers, since women working on their own was considered daring in the 1800s. As the field became more open to women in the 1900s, more amateurs emerged,

many participating in photographic organizations.

By the time of World War II, women had already joined the field of photojournalism and documentary photography. Harriet Chalmers Adams (1875–1937) served as a correspondent for Harper's Magazine in Europe during World War I and was the only female journalist permitted to visit the trenches. Another war correspondent based in France during World War I was Helen Johns Kirtland (1890–1979) who worked for Leslie's Weekly.

Margaret Bourke-White (1906–1971) was the first foreigner to photograph Soviet industry as well as the first female war correspondent and the first woman photographer to work for Life magazine. During the Great Depression, Doro-

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thea Lange (1895–1965) was employed by the Resettlement Administration to photograph displaced farm families and migrant workers. Distributed free to newspapers, her images became icons of the time and that legacy continues to this day. Also during this period, Marion Carpenter (1920–2002) became the first female national press photographer and the first woman to cover the White House.

Among all the prestigious photography prizewinners, Emma Barton (1872– 1938) was the first woman to be awarded the Royal Photographic Society medal in 1903. The first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography was Virginia Schau (1915–1989), an amateur who photographed two men being rescued from a tractor-trailer cab as it dangled from a bridge in Redding, California.

Early female pioneers in the field of photography paved the way for accomplished women photographers today, who continue to break through barriers in the male-dominated field. In an interview with PBS, Lynsey Addario talks about gender inequality that still prevails in the field. Addario’s work is focused on the Middle East. She had been kidnapped twice – once in 2004 in Iraq and again in 2011 in Libya by pro-Gaddafi forces while on assignment with three male colleagues from the The New York Times.

Being a woman allowed her to gain access to the private lives of women who were often segregated from their male counterparts, yet at times she was still not fully accepted as a war photographer because of her gender. When asked how she felt about people’s reactions to her story such as “How could The New York Times let a woman go to war zones,” Addario replied, “I did find it really offensive. I still find it offensive today, because I think that this is my life. And I have very set reasons for doing what I do. And I think that if I want to dedicate my life to covering war, that’s my prerogative. Why should my gender affect what I do? If I’m capable of doing the

same job as a man, why should it matter if I’m a woman?”

Ironically, despite the long history of women participating in photography, bringing in new techniques, and offering unique perspectives, female photographers themselves are still framed in limited scopes due to their gender.

This is why exhibitions like Women in Vision are important. Not only does it display the meaningful and enrapturing work of those who have gone through difficulties as Addario did, but the photographers’ different ages and backgrounds also allow them to inspire and encourage each other. Amy Toensing, whose work is also on display at the

Dorothea Lange, “Migrant Mother” (1936)

Erika Larson, Tepee-style style structures used to smoke reindeer meat exhibition, cites Maggie Steber as one of her inspirations. She said in an interview with NPR, “I remember being in my 20s and listening to Maggie Steber give a lecture at a workshop and just being blown away by her work.”

Maggie Steber is a veteran photographer who's documented life in Haiti for more than 25 years. Taking a similar stance with Addario on the issue of gender, Steber said, “In a way, doesn't matter if you're a man or woman. It's really more about how you connect with people and everybody does that in a different way. And I don't think that you can look at a photograph and know whether it's taken by a man or woman.”

Amy Toensing’s work, mainly taken from Australia and aboriginal homelands, reflects a similar idea of connection. She said, “My job is to tell stories about humanity.

And in order to tell stories, you have to know your subject. And

everything goes back to honoring my subject.” These women honor their subjects by entering their lives and becoming part of them through respect, capturing the moments that defy the surface. They take viewers into a combination of just the right amount of art and emotion, and into stories that are often untold.

The photographers of the Women of Vision exhibition come from a long line of women of vision. They are part of a tradition in which women played major roles in the creation and development of the field of photography, though their roles have often been downplayed. Women of Vision is a sign of advancement in highlighting the role of women in the field of documentary photography and photojournalism, but there are still limitations to overcome such as the lack of female representation and gender bias against female photographers.

Still, the improvements so far have already provided a great start as women photographers are representing themselves now as opposed to the 1800s and 1900s when they were often duos and partners in work with their husbands. Due to technological improvements, the field of photography is also becoming more accessible since cameras are readily available and more affordable.

As one of the other exhibit photographers, Kitra Cahana, says, "I try to approach every story I work on as though I'm going to write a thesis about it. I really embed myself."

For Stephanie Sinclair, "The worst day is not when my safety is at risk; it's when I can't get the pictures I want. You have a chance to get voices heard, so every day counts." These women deserve credit for their dedication, respect, and effort in producing powerful images.

It's time we honor them and those who came before.

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Gender at the Boundaries of Art, Religion and History

By Maria Cristina Fernandes

T

he iconological interpretation of the name “Mary� reminds me of the Christian maternal symbol of purity and virginity, but it is also the name of many women. It is also my name.

Religious-historical artworks elicit historical realism as a matter of constructing reality.

Such artistic representations reveal underlying gendered structures and produce narratives that give the public different depictions of political, social, and cultural contexts of the past.

The Baroque movement, born in the late sixteenth century, had its beginning in Italy.

From Italy, it spread to other European countries and to the New World colonies, arriving in Brazil in the eighteen century. The Renaissance, the artistic movement that preceded the Baroque era, served as a major influence for the new movement. A crisis was born due to the politics of development, religion, and modernization of society and its values, especially in the cultural environment.

The major conflict was between faith and science, with a strong

Photo by Lawrence OP

cultural emphasis placed on faith.

Numerous pieces funded by religious institutions reinforced hierarchical notions of gender still found in today’s contemporary social order.

Artistic representations of Madonna, the Virgin Mary, support the natural order of gender hierarchy by constructing a passive maternal woman.

Likewise, the Ancient Roman religion is profoundly gendered and has a moral gender order where women are typified as feminine and subordinated under masculine superiority.

The Christian religious icons of Mary of Magdala and Eve also highlight the presumed order of gender hierarchy.

Religious artwork is disproportionally focused on gender norms. Women who engage in illicit sexual practices, such as Eve and Mary Magdalene, are perceived as deviants and threats to the social order.

While Eve is sent to hell for her misdeeds, Mary Magdalene is saved from being stoned to death in public by divine intervention. Thus, the only deliverance for such adulterous

women must come from God himself rather than mankind.

Religious art is profoundly involved on how one perceives social order and one’s place in the society. As a child being raised and educated in private religious schools in different regions of Brazil, I was vulnerable to the influences of the full range of religious art representations, practices and beliefs. I grew up aware of these influences and experienced the boundaries of the real and representational.

The Virgin Mary is one of the most significant religious figures in Brazil. National and local, annual Catholic rituals are held in public venues across the country. The rituals suggest the pressures placed unequally on women.

My grandmother’s name was Mary. My own name evokes Mary. So, after many childhood trips to churches and convents with my grandmother, I became curious about the origin of my name. I was told my name had a special relevance because it meant Virgin Mary. I grew up under the impression that I was special somehow, for carrying the Virgin Mary’s name — today, it seems a lot for any child to feel that she must live up to the legacy of the divine Virgin Mary.

During my grandmother’s visits, she read the Bible everyday and interpreted the passages for me. She frequently stressed the importance of being a good, church-going girl. One of my grandmother’s concerns was my purity, so she constantly stressed the impor-

tance of going to confession before attending mass to be pure when receiving the Holy Communion. It never occurred to me back then that the rituals I witnessed during mass portrayed women as docile servants of the church. The same characterization can also be observed in other religious practices of the Church. Regionally, there are countless religious rituals in which hundreds of women don the maternal, nurturing demeanor of the Virgin Mary. Their acts not only show their piety, but also signs of extreme poverty and alienation.

Suffering is everywhere, but suffering has become an ideal for Catholic women in Brazil.

Witnessing the faith of women striving to embody the Virgin Mary inspired me to

seek a deeper understanding of the Virgin Mary and other female religious icons like Eve and Mary Magdalene as their depictions continue to influences women worldwide.

Brazilian pictorial and sculptural models of these iconic women exemplify two main religious roles of women lingering from the Middle Ages: the deification of Mary as the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene as the saved whore.

These two historical representations of women live on today as women face the female sexual dichotomy of being seen as sacred mother or a debauched hussy depending on whether others view them as promiscuous. What will the religious depictions of women tell our women tomorrow?

Virgin Mary, Tableaux Vivant Fernandes, Maria Cristina (2012)

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The Arranged Blind Date

By Mira Bansal

Photo by Wajahat Syed

15 Arts and Culture

Photo courtesy of Laura Billings.

A storefront of a businessdedicated to matchmaking single men and women.

Once upon a time,

far, far away, there was a girl.

She was 20 years old, and her parents thought it was time that she got married. She had heard from her father’s friend that he might have found a potential suitor for her. The parents passed along a very special paper called a biodata sheet to the friend who would then give it to the boy’s family. The biodata included basic information including her height, weight, eye color, income, personal interests, hobbies, and job history.

The girl’s family also received a biodata from the boy. He seemed to meet their criteria, so the girl’s parents called the boy’s family and told them they were interested.

The girl’s personal criteria were not as thorough and thoughtful as those of other

girls her age. All she really wanted in her future husband was someone who spoke fluent English, and had a house with a swimming pool. Nevertheless, after seeing the girl’s biodata, the boy’s family was interested as well, so they decided to plan a meeting. However, there was a catch: the boy was from America, but the girl lived in India. They would have to wait. The girl was certain that this boy would be the one. She would stare at the one picture she had of him and would fight with her mother when she told her to see other boys as the year passed.

After the long wait was over, the boy finally traveled to India. Their meeting was slightly awkward. The girl’s entire family sat on one side of the room, and the boy’s family sat on the other. The two families

conversed during this time, and the boy and girl only spoke when they were addressed. The two were not allowed to speak alone. The next day, the boy and the girl met once more for about an hour. This time, they were alone, but this was a rare occurrence and usually did not happen with other couples.

They talked, and afterwards they had both made their decisions. The girl said yes, and so did the boy. They were going to get married!

This story describes one of hundreds of arranged marriages. Although their story may sound unfamiliar to many people in America, it is something that happens in India all the time. According to UNICEF, about 90% of Indians from India end up having an arranged marriage.

Most arranged mar-

riages do not transpire exactly like the one described. Many people see several potential mates until they agree on one.

Some may even see over fifty.

The biodata process is very much like an online dating profile. Through the simple information provided, people are able to choose partners based on the qualities that they and their families find appealing and appropriate. The biodata process helps eliminate suitors from the piles of profiles that stack up. When the community knows that you are interested in getting married, its members usually ask for your biodata sheet and then pass it along, should there be a potential match for you.

“

Arranged marriages can be likened to blind dates, only differentiated by the marriage’s expectation to last a lifetime.

After the wedding, there is a long process of getting to

Arranged marriages can be likened to blind dates, only differentiated by the marriage’s expectation to last a lifetime. know the person and getting accustomed to his or her ways.

Surprisingly, arranged marriages have a very high retention rate, with only about 4% of them ending in divorce.

There are many expla-

nations for this low divorce rate, including the fact that many Indian girls lack a formalized education. So even if these girls are unhappy in their marriage, they stay in the relationship thinking it’s their fate, unable to fend for themselves financially. But the success of these marriages can also be attributed to Indian culture, which has reinforced the notion that this is how marriage should be.

Girls know that if they did leave the marriage, they likely would be rejected by society, since divorce is not accepted and is perceived to bring shame upon the family.

In most arranged marriages, however, the cou-

”

Photo by Dinuaj K

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ple does end up falling in love.

Since the couple meets differently than a typical American couple does, the relationship itself is different by nature.

After someone is wed through an arranged marriage, he or she slowly learns the other person’s habits and interests.

As this happens, the couple starts to care about each other in deep and affectionate ways.

Whether you want to call it love or friendship, these couples do develop strong bonds and often cannot live without each other. These relationships often start on a friendship basis and

then grow from there. Michael Ben Zahabe, author of Song of Songs: The Book for Daughters, describes how these particular marriages have “an interesting advantage over today’s Western women. Matriarchs [don’t] begin their marriage with love.

Instead, they [are] taught how

Photo by Kevin Buehler

Photo by Wajahat Syed

to love. They enter marriage with an earnest determination to grow a love that [will] sustain their marriage for a lifetime.”

Arranged marriages are the norm in India, and they have been an integral practice for thousands of years. These days some people have opted for the Western style “love marriage,” but it is always a big fuss whenever anyone chooses this over an arranged marriage.

To most traditional Indians, the idea of choosing a spouse yourself based on love is crazy. They believe that parents should have the right to help choose the child’s future husband or wife.

In comparison, many Amer-

“

icans would certainly want their parents to approve

Whether you want to call it love or friendship, these couples do develop a strong bond and often cannot live without each other. These relationships often start on a friendship basis and then grow from there.

”

of the marriage, but generally would not want them to choose their partners for them.

This idea is so ingrained in the American culture that it is seen even in childhood rhymes: “First comes love, then comes

marriage.”

It may be difficult to grasp how or why someone could partake in an arranged marriage, let alone want one.

However, it’s important to try to understand why such marriages happen and what role they play in a culture. Every culture comes with its own unique traditions and customs.

People should appreciate and embrace the diversity in the world. After all, as Jimmy Carter once said, “We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. [We are] different people, [with] different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”

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19 Arts and Culture Photo courtesy of MikaelleS. A vigil hosted by the Hofstra Pride Network to honor Tyler Clementi, an eighteen-year-old gay student at Rutgers University who commited suicide on September 22, 2010.

Teen Suicides in the Media

By Elizabeth Loxterkamp

M

ainstream news media often suggests that a rise in teen suicides has occurred as a result of cyberbullying, yet the rates of bullying and teen suicides have not risen since the year 2000. Bullying and suicide remain pressing issues for teens today; the cases of Phoebe Prince, Jamey Rodemeyer, and Rebecca Sedwick are just

a few examples of supposedly innocent teen victims who were driven to suicide by bullying from their peers. These stories are unquestionably tragic, but the reality of teen suicide and its many precipitating factors is much more complex than what mainstream media portrays.

Dominant, reusable headlines like “Cyberbullying Leads to

Teen Suicide� play off strong fears of American parents. But it is important to look beyond this dominant frame to the other little-discussed causes of suicide: mental illness and conflicts with loved ones.

Cyberbullying, over other causes of suicide, remains prevalent because the story is easy to sell. Cyberbullying

encompasses two large fears for American parents: the fear of the unpoliced and unfamiliar internet, and the fear that they are unable to protect their children. New technology often creates anxieties for older generations that don’t fully understand it, and the internet, with its unmonitored social networking and potential for cruel anonymity, is a prime cause for these fears. Each news story that describes how heartless Facebook messages contribute to teen suicides feed into parents’ fear of the internet.

As Karen Sternheimer, professor of sociology at the University of Southern California, stated, “There is more focus on protecting children emotionally than in previous generations. Parents today are

more aware of the potential dangers to their children – whether from cyberbullying, online predators, texting and driving, underage drinking, or anything else that poses a threat to America’s youth – and want to shield them from such threats. Parents are afraid of how the world will hurt their children, so even though rates of bullying and teen suicide have not increased, they pay enough attention to these issues that they reach ‘epidemic’ levels. Fear-mongering is an effective method for creating eye-catching headlines and selling stories, and in effect, reporters continue to use this tactic.”

Popularized through fear, the cyberbullying headline is perpetuated by the media

for its success in readership.

The case of Tyler Clementi is a prime example on this. Clementi was a freshman at Rutgers University when he committed suicide in 2010. His story was depicted by the media as a “typical” teen suicide; reporters portrayed him as a victim of homophobia and cyberbullying at the hands of his roommate, Dhuran Ravi, who used his webcam to spy on Clementi when he brought a date back to his dorm room. Ravi’s actions were said to have driven Clementi to suicide. Ian Parker, a reporter for the New Yorker, challenged this portrayal in his lengthy 2012 article, “The Story of a Suicide: Two College Roommates, a Webcam, and a Tragedy,” which thoroughly examines the facts of the Clem-

Photo by Lee Morlet

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21 Arts and Culture Photo courtesy of Sean MacEntee enti case using interviews with friends and family of Clementi and Ravi, as well as texts and online messages between the students themselves.

After examining the facts of the case in all its complexities, Parker reveals that simply framing Clementi’s death as a side-effect of bullying is a gross misrepresentation of the reality of the story.

The relationship between Clementi and Ravi was much more complicated than a stereotypical bully/victim dynamic. Clementi and Ravi had a somewhat tense relationship, but Clementi said in a text message to his friend Sam Cruz that Ravi was “very considerate and perceptive.” As for the incidents where Ravi spied on Clementi, both instances lasted no longer than a few seconds and, contrary to what was misreported in many news stories, were never recorded. These actions are more accurately described as invasions of privacy than cyberbullying. Most no-

tably, the media did not report the contents of Clementi’s suicide note, and it is uncertain to what extent Ravi’s actions were involved in Clementi’s death.

There are many other factors that could have played a role in Clementi’s death, such as familial problems, that did not reach mainstream headlines. After he came out to his mother, Tyler said to a friend, “Mom has basically completely rejected me.”

Paul Mainardi, a cousin of the Clementis, said in an interview with Parker that Tyler was shy and had few close relationships, but was very close to his mother. It is likely that this loss of such an important relationship factored in Clementi’s decision to commit suicide, and perhaps played a more important role than Ravi’s actions.

In another example, Rebecca Sedwick, who did suffer from significant bullying, was hospitalized for mental health reasons. As Deborah Temkin, a child developmental scientist with a focus on bullying pre-

vention, states, “We simply do not know the whole story to be able to say that bullying was the sole cause.” Examining teen suicide through an alternative perspective that attempts to encompass all reasons behind attempted suicide will provide a much more authentic representation than simply “bullying causes suicide.” In fact, the only way to properly prevent teen suicide is to look at all precipitating factors. To do otherwise would be a disservice to those who have lost their lives, and to those who may take their lives.

According to a study by Debra L. Karch, only 3.2% of teen suicides list bullying as a precipitating factor. The study lists numerous factors that are more prevalent than bullying, such as conflicts with parents or friends (found in 51.1% of suicides), conflicts with boyfriends or girlfriends (26.8%), depression (37.2%), ADHD (17.8%), or bipolar disorder (13.6%). Based on this data, it would be much more effective

to educate teenagers on proper ways to resolve interpersonal conflict and to provide better support for those suffering from depression, ADHD, or bipolar disorder than to launch anti-bullying campaigns.

Unfortunately, it would be difficult to create effective campaigns for the prevention of teen suicide through conflict-resolution education and mental health services, because these may not “sell� as well as anti-bullying campaigns. Topics of mental health and illness are stigmatized in American culture, and so it is less likely that mainstream news outlets and readers would want to engage in a discussion around mental health. As for conflicts with friends, family, and significant others, those relationships are often much more nuanced and case-sensitive than conflicts with bullies.

This alternative view, that mental illness and conflicts with loved ones lead to suicide, also does not invoke parental fear like the dominant frame does. Parents are more likely to believe that, because they are in control of their relationship with their children, their children would never take their lives because of familial conflict. Their children’s relationships with bullies, however, are completely out of their control, which makes the bullies seem even more frightening.

Both the fear and the simple, eye-catching headlines have led to this heightened cultural awareness of teen suicide and

bullying, and if the issue was consistently presented with its full complexities, then it is unlikely it would have become so prominent in the first place.

Teen suicide is a much more complicated subject than what is portrayed in mainstream news. Unfortunately, the alternative perspectives, which describe precipitating factors that have a much stronger correlation to teen suicide, are not

as commonly reported because they do not lend themselves well to eye-catching headlines, and they do not play off the fears of protective parents. If teen suicide is to be successfully prevented, however, it is imperative that people look past the simplified headlines and examine the full complexities of why teenagers really take their lives, and how they can be effectively helped.

Photo by MikaelleS

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22

A Silent Arms Race

By Anne Shen

Photo by Martin LaBar

25 Science

A

Japanese giant hornet scout lands on a wooden beehive. At four centimeters long, she dwarfs the honeybee inhabitants, her tough exoskeleton rendering bee stings ineffective. The hornet, Vespa mandarinia, hovers, choosing a bee to kill and bring to the hornet larvae as food. If she succeeds,

Photo by dni777

she will return several times to prey on the bees and eventually mark their hive with a pheromone attracting her hive mates.

Once more than three hornets gather, they enter the slaughter phase of hunting, in which each hornet kills up to forty honeybees per minute. In a group of twenty to thirty individuals, the

Photo by mommamia

hornets can destroy a honeybee colony of thirty thousand in three hours; the bees either die in the futile defense or abscond (abandon the hive).

Such scenes often occur in Asian countries where beekeepers favor imported European honeybees, Apis mellifera, over the native Asian honeybee, Apis cerana. While the former produces more honey and absconds less easily, it is a foreign species, so European bees have not yet evolved defenses against predatory wasps and hornets.

In fact, the European bees cannot detect Vespa mandarinia pheromones.

Unlike their European cousins, the Asian honeybee coevolved with Asian hornets, and although an individual bee cannot kill a giant hornet, col-

lective hive action provides an effective counterattack.

When bees guarding the hive entrance sense a hornet scout, they escape into the hive and warn the colony of the predator.

Roughly one thousand bees gather and wait just within the hive entrance, luring the hornet inside; once the hornet enters the confines of the hive, over five hundred honeybees engulf it, forming a tight “bee ball.”

The honeybees shiver to warm their flight muscles, heating the intruder to 47⁰C. Although Vespa mandarinia can tolerate temperatures up to 48⁰C under ordinary conditions, the hornets’ heat tolerance peaks at 46⁰C in the presence of elevated carbon dioxide levels produced by bee respiration in the heat ball. The Asian honeybees effectively heat their attackers to death, and they can typically avoid mass attacks by killing the first hornet scouts, keeping the hive location hidden.

In addition to heat balling, Apis cerana often collectively “shimmer” to repel predatory hornets. When the attacker approaches, the bees simultaneously shake their abdomens from side to side for a few seconds at a time while buzzing loudly; this “we see you” signal warns the hornet to stay away or risk death by heat balling. The bees can adjust the intensity of their abdominal vibrations depending on the proximity of the predator as

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well as the level of danger present.

host bee. Furthermore, Asian honeybees can identify infested pupae and larvae, and adult bees routinely remove or canniThe Asian honeybee balize such juveniles to prevent continues to evolve in the dissemination of parasites an “arms race” against and disease. predators and parasites,

The Asian honeybee and for now, their stratecontinues to evolve in an “arms gies prove adequate. race” against predators and parasites, and for now, their strategies prove adequate.

So the Asian honeybee has However, certain characterevolved effective defenses istics continue to make them against predators larger than troublesome for beekeeping itself, but what of smaller pests? and human management. For Since Apis cerana is the natuexample, compared to Euroral host of Varroa jacobsani, a pean bees, Apis cerana occupy parasitic mite that feeds on bee smaller spaces and keep smaller larvae, it has adapted several honey stores. Furthermore, due anti-mite hygienic habits. In to larger numbers of natural addition to individual groompredators, Asian honey bees ing, Asian honeybees perform abscond more easily. However, grooming dances, in order to as European colonies succumb recruit other bees for social to mite infestations and wasp grooming; nest mates touch predation in Asia, beekeepers and check each other’s bodmay return to their native bees ies for parasites, either killing for a solution. mites or chasing them from the

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Photo by Thangaraj Kumaravel

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27 Politics and History

Rounding Up the Usual Suspects: Political Polls and Question Framing

By Caylene Parrish

Imagine you are living in post-9/11 America (in 2003, to be specific), when the war in Afghanistan is raging.

A coalition of American and NATO troops invade Iraq under Operation “Iraqi Freedom,” beginning what is now known as the Iraq War. The invasion serves a dual purpose, not only to free the Iraqi people from the current regime but also to potentially capture Saddam Hussein. You receive a phone call and are asked to answer some questions about America’s commitment in Iraq as well as at what cost should American and allied forces attempt to capture Saddam Hussein. The following is posed to you:

Americans and of their allies.

If you were to stick with your initial choice, you and 43% of Americans would still favor military action, in direct contention with the 48% opposed to intervention (an increase Would you favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end from the initial 25% opposed).

Introducing information like Saddam Hussein’s rule? the possibility of casualties provokes a drastic shift in opin You, as 68% of other polled Americans did, vote that ion. For respondents quickly answering the questions, the you favor military action to consideration of an unstated depose Saddam Hussein. The following question is asked later factor may not be immediately intuitive like casualties or the during the poll: possibility of American action being unsanctioned and unsupWould you favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to ported by international bodies end Saddam Hussein’s rule, even (like the UN or by American if it meant that U.S. forces might allies). These drastic shifts as instigated and abetted by the suffer thousands of casualties? addition of one sentence clause muddy the legitimacy of the

Favoring the intervenfactual, unbiased nature of tion suddenly leads to a more polls. tangible result: the death of

Photo by Stuart Boreham

Polls are a powerful means by which the citizenry can voice opinions on various issues in a safe, anonymous setting. The results from polls are often ruminated on by political campaign managers and economists alike in an attempt to understand the will of the American people.

Because these graphical and statistical representations of the American people’s opinions are mined for insight by politicians, academics, and voters, their efficacy and accuracy should be of the utmost importance for both the public and politicians alike. In the attempt to quickly collect and release data however, mistakes are made: the cross-section of the populace is not nearly as diverse as it should be, the data collection process is skewed, or the question framing leads to confusion

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among respondents. All of these mistakes, individual or compounded, reflect an inaccurate take on the issue as ‘backed by statistical data.’

When reading a newspaper, the average person may come across an infographic based on the data from a poll.

The person may then reflect that the polling data was unexpected or, in the case of a badly-executed poll, completely outrageous. Why, as reported by a June 2014 Stanford National Global Warming Poll, did the percentage of people who believe that global warming is occurring drop from 80% five years ago and from 82% three years ago to 73% of Americans today? What could have happened to have so drastically shifted the American public’s views (by almost 10% of the population, in a three year time span)?

One easy answer lies within the poll pool. If the random cross-section of the American populace that is

Photo courtesy of Pew Research Center 2013.

This question is worded in an “agree-disagree” possibly creating biases by the survey takers.

Because these graphical and statistical representations of the American people’s opinions are mined for insight by politicians, academia and voters, their efficacy and accuracy should be of the utmost importance for both the public and politicians alike. In the attempt to quickly collect and release data however, mistakes are made... supposed to be represented in a poll, inadequately represented American views either ten years ago or in recent polls, then a visible shift would result. Another easy answer stems from a data collection process that was perhaps poorly implemented.

In this case, the polling agency usually retracts the poll.

Another answer, which may not come to mind as quickly, is question framing.

How many people have sat stumped at their desks trying to solve a problem whose question is unintelligible? How many people have consequently interpreted or invented a potential meaning for the sake of responding to the question?

According to the American Association for Public Opinion Research, all questions in

a public opinion survey or poll should be easy to understand as well as reliable.

If a respondent were to answer a poll and take a poll asking the same question shortly thereafter, the respondent should be able to supply the same answer, as opposed to reneging on their first answer.

Questions with ambiguous or leading content can often be found during one’s weekly Gallup poll viewing binge. The wording in polling questions often reflects the opinion of the pollster, whether purposefully or inadvertently.

To combat this subjectivity, entire organizations have been founded with the intention of both analyzing data to create polls as well as providing guidelines for the creation of unbiased political poll questions. These organizations, such as the American Association for Public Opinion Research or the Pew Research Center, aid in the unbiased question creation process. For instance, questions that solicit responses that stem from a more visceral, as opposed to logical, human element will naturally skew responses.

Pollsters recognize the power that question wording wields in evoking the primarily emotion-

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29 Politics and History Photo by Gage Skidmore

al response in the respondents and, consequently, revert to this tactic to skew the numbers. The 2010 Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court, which essentially lifted the ban on corporate or organized interests’ spending for political purposes, generated numerous polls. This question from a CNN poll likely affected the polling results from its inflammatory wording.

Do you support or oppose the recent ruling by the Supreme

Court that says corporations and unions can spend as much money as they want to help political candidates win elections?

Such a question would prompt a visceral negative response, especially due to the use of “as much money as they want.” Indeed, 80% of Americans voted that they opposed the Citizens United ruling.

Lexical variations such as word choice, the use of double negatives, or complex language, as well as asking

for multiple answers for one question, can often be misinterpreted by respondents whose attention may be elsewhere.

One lexical and structural phenomenon that often occurs has been dubbed the “acquiescence bias.” The acquiescence bias is best displayed when respondents are forced to shift away from answering in an agree-disagree setting, during which the respondents are more likely to agree with the option favored by the pollster, to a Forced Choice one. A 1999

Photo courtesy of Pew Research Center 1999.

This is an example of an Acquiescence Bias.

Pew poll found that 55% of Americans agree that the “best way to ensure peace is through military strength.” When forced to choose between diplomacy and military strength as ways to safeguard peace, the number fell to 33%.

Leading questions, or context effect questions, where the respondent is led to a decision he or she would not have reached prior to being inundated with information, also tend to strongly influence the final numbers, especially if the information provided is biased.

The collection and statistical representation of the public’s opinion on an issue is an art and not a science, as many people mistakenly believe. A slightly skewed poll could drastically change government funding priorities or policy, according to University of Delaware professor David Wilson. Polls are expected to have margins of error; when the margins of error grow in size to accommodate “expediency and bias,” and when said changes are barely remarked upon, the American public should, he asserts, be more worried. Such inadequate question framing results in inaccurate statistics, which leads to a faulty representation of public opinion. These results are then internalized by governments and used to make public policy decisions.

So, why should we care about something as seemingly insignificant as question framing? Well, if the frame is incorrect, the picture will also be.

Survey courtesy of Pew Research Center, 2011.

With this polling data, one must now wonder how the questions were posed to the survey taker and if the questions influenced their answer. Figures in Green denote significant majorties approve.

Figures in Red denote significant majorities disapprove.

I

magine you are living in post-9/11 America (in 2003, to be specific), when the war in Afghanistan is raging. A coalition of American and NATO troops invade Iraq under Operation “Iraqi Freedom,” beginning what is now known as the Iraq War. The invasion serves a dual purpose, not only to free the Iraqi peoples from the current regime but also to potentially capture Saddam Hussein. You receive a phone call and are asked to answer some questions about America’s commitment in Iraq as well as at what cost American and allied forces should attempt to capture Saddam Hussein. The following is posed to you: Would you favor or oppose taking military action in Iraq to end Saddam Hussein’s rule?

You, as 68% of other polled Americans did, vote that you favor military action to depose Saddam Hussein.

The following question is asked

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30

America: The L

America: the land of the free? The map above suggests otherwise.

American identity, often based on the amount of freedom and diversity of the population, comes into question as the numbers contradict the ideals.

2.4 million people are behind bars in the US; this is the highest incarceration rate in the entire world.

When compared to its fellow founding NATO countries, the US shoots off the charts in incarceration rates. Shouldn’t it be concerning that so many people are in prison?

In contrast to fellow members of the OECD, the US incarcer-

ation rate skyrockets above the rest of its partners in economic trade and cooperation. One would think that the US would have less of a need for prisons if it really is a stable, civilized, and industrialized nation.

If the US really is a bastion of freedom and security, why are more of the nation’s people in prison than the next five industrialized countries combined?

Absurdly enough, comparisons between the United States’ incarceration rates and other countries are often made at the state level. When using this level of comparison, many of the states in the US such as Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma have higher rates of

incarceration than countries such as Cuba, Rwanada, Russia, El Salvador, Azerbaijan, Panama, and Thailand. The two states with the lowest incarceration rates are Maine and Vermont.

Men make up 90% of the prison and jail population, and have an imprisonment rate 14 times higher than the rate for women. These men are overwhelmingly young too; incarceration rates are highest for those in their 20s and early 30s.

Prisoners also tend to be less educated. The average state prisoner has a 10th grade education, and about 70% have not completed high school.

While this shifts focus to lack of

and of the Free?

educational background before imprisonment, civil rights associations such as the NAACP discuss the lack of education provided to inmates during their incarceration. In fact, nearly two-thirds of prisoners will reoffend. American prisons, rather than rehabilitating prisoners, drain the imprisoned of their time and leave stigmas that can bar them from jobs and educational opportunities

By the Wellesley Globalist Staff

after completing their sentences.

The public dialogue on incarceration rates in the U.S. often bring up criticisms on the “war on drugs.” Since Nixon’s speech depicted it as a mandate called for by Americans in 1971, the “war on drugs” has steered law enforcement toward focusing on nonviolent, drug-related offences.

According to the Drug Policy Alliance, 88 percent of those charged with marijuana law violations were arrested for possession rather than more serious charges. Among the nearly 750,000 people imprisoned for violating marijuana laws, 61 percent are black or Hispanic.

Thus, the “war on drugs” has moved to unequally targeting minorities. Outside of the U.S., the civilization of marijuana causes issues for Mexico and neighboring countries. The possibility of profiting by supplying the American drug market further stimulates Mexican drug cartels with a consistent influx of cash. More than 70,000 Mexicans have been killed in Mexico’s drug war since 2006.

The NAACP challenges this disproportionate conviction rate by citing stronger comparisons. If minorities such as African Americans and Latinos were imprisoned as often as whites, the prison population would drop nearly 50 percent.

Likewise, the “war on drugs” sends African American to prison for an average of 58.7 months, nearly as long as the

61.7 months—the average sentence for white offenders for violent crimes.

With the Ferguson case and the Eric Garner case recently highlighting the prevalent danger of racial profiling in law enforcement, the American public reaction falls between rage and deep fear.

Americans calling for justice want to believe the U.S. has moved stereotyping based on race, but these cases and their outcomes show the sad reality and the urgent need for change. If daily interactions with police could lead to murder, what do larger trends of incarcerations indicate?

By breaking the trust of the American public, the recent cases showing unequal police enforcement point to underlying problems in the system. If prisons continue to fill with people who were initially targeted, sentenced more harshly and kept without opportunities for rehabilitation, the system has clearly failed.

While Attorney General Eric H. Holder recognizes the need to reform to set aside major penalties for serious drug traffickers, prison reform remains stuck

at the state level with governors leading the movement.

Proponents such as Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov. Tom Corbett have faced criticism for their programs being inefficient and costly. Other governors, such

as Gov. Robert Bentley, actively fight reforms. Many attempts have also been made to reform the system through the law however this has also had little success. One lawsuit brought up by the Southern Poverty

Law Center and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program against the state of Alabama, shows the realities of treatment in prison. The lawsuit claims that Alabama prisons provided inadequate health care for inmates and segregating disabled inmates without providing equal accommodations.

The rising number of prisoners poses further problems. While spending tries to keep up with the increase of prisoners, the treatment of each prisoner inevitably drops.

As prisons fill and empty, they reach a larger and larger percent of the U.S. population.

Questions of inequality in law enforcement and general prison reform need quick answers; lawmakers and government institutions must act decisively if they intent to uphold the core American ideals.

35 Politics and History

On the United States’ Involvement in the Middle East

By Victoria Angelova

Official Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mark Fayloga.

Marines from India Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, make their way through Trek Nawa, Afghanistan, back to Patrol Base Poole after completing Operation Mako, Sept. 21, 2010

The Middle East is

facing a grave threat to its peace and stability as the Islamic State continues to expand, despite measures taken by the Iraqi, Syrian and United States governments. Little, however, has been said about the nature and the origins of this extremist group. Where did ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) come from? How did it gain power so suddenly?

Should prior U.S. involvement in the region be held accountable?

ISIS originated in 1999 under the name Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad as an extremist Sunni terrorist group. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it fought alongside al-Qaeda against the U.S. and coalition forces, as

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well as the new Iraqi government that was established after the death of Saddam Hussein and consisted mainly of Shiite members. Like most other radical terrorist groups, ISIS promotes hatred for the western world and the creation of a Sunni-populated state ruled under a strict interpretation of Sha’ria law. In recent years, there have been many cases of political and economic discrimination against Sunni Muslims in Iraq, which,

along with the distress in Syria, allowed the ISIS doctrine and beliefs to thrive amongst the common Sunni population in the region.

Currently, the Islamic State controls vast territories in Eastern Syria and Western Iraq (mainly the Anbar region), but many of its initial supporters have begun to support the Iraqi government and its security forces. The group is also responsible for conducting crimes against humanity, such

Some people believe that America wanted to aid the oppressed Mujahedeen against its corrupt government.

Others believe that the U.S.’s underlying goal in supporting the insurgents was the containment of communism, a policy that justified U.S. support for any group in opposition to the Soviet Union.

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as the mass murder of Shiites, Sunnis and Christians, as well as the enslavement of women and children, destruction of villages and the bombing of religious centers.

The threat of ISIS has prompted the world to wonder whether the U.S. will once again deploy troops to the Middle East. The possible deployment of troops has also sparked renewed debate about one of the most controversial topics in contemporary politics: the real motivations behind prior U.S. involvement in the Middle East and how such involvement has changed the region. Many have condemned the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, claiming that the U.S. had no right to intervene and that its goals were different from what it claimed.

A look back at what the U.S. has achieved and lost due to its foreign policy in the region is

inevitable, because the current state of the Middle East is a direct result of U.S. action.

The first time the U.S. intervened in the region was during the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The American government, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and China supported Taliban insurgents fighting against Soviet forces. Explanations for why the U.S. supported the insurgents differ. Some people believe that America wanted to aid the oppressed Mujahedeen against its corrupt government. Others believe that the U.S.’s underlying goal in supporting the insurgents was the containment of communism, a policy that justified U.S. support for any group in opposition to the Soviet Union. The role of the U.S. in the conflict proved decisive for the Soviet Union as it eventually withdrew from Afghan-

istan, allowing for the birth of a Taliban government. This decision, however, would haunt the U.S. On September 11, 2001, nearly two decades after the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the U.S. suffered its greatest terrorist attack. It was orchestrated

by Osama bin Laden, an individual who had been trained by the C.I.A. to fight against Soviet forces.

The U.S. also had a significant impact on the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait (19901991). In both cases, the Iraqi government, that was under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, initiated the conflicts. During the Iran-Iraq War, the U.S. government funded the Iraqi army, overlooking its use of chemical weapons and the notoriety of its leader. During the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, however, the U.S. sided against the Iraqi

Marines from India Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, make their way through Trek Nawa, Afghanistan, back to Patrol Base Poole after completing Operation Mako, Sept. 21, 2010.

Mako was a one-day clearing mission to disrupt enemy activity. (Official Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mark Fayloga)

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Photo courtesy of Thierry Ehrmann Muralist painting a portrait of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi; Rhone Alps, France in 2014

U.S. Army Photo by Spc. Luke Thornberry U.S. Army Soldiers from 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division run to the Blackhawk helicopter after conducting a search for weapons caches March 12, 2008, in Albu Issa, Iraq.

government.

What caused the sudden change of heart? In the first case, Iran was thought to be an even greater ideological enemy than the Soviet Union, which would explain why the U.S. overlooked Iraq’s usage of weapons of mass destruction.

Kuwait, on the other hand, is one of the most important oil exporters of the Middle East and a key U.S. ally in the region; thus, unlike Iran, it needed to be protected.

With regards to the War in Iraq (2003-2011) and the War in Afghanistan (2001), the American government stated it wanted to free the oppressed people from the tyranny of their leaders. But many skeptics have offered alternative explanations for U.S. involvement.

For instance, Iraq, possessing the second largest oil reserves in the world, began utilizing the Euro instead of American dollar for its oil trade in 1999 and profited greatly from the switch. Other oil-exporting countries, such

as Iran, Russia and Venezuela considered following Iraq’s lead. Doing so would have decreased the value of the American dollar. Some suggest that the U.S. decision to invade Iraq was motivated by its desire to prevent a devaluation of its currency.

Moreover, another plausible explanation is that the U.S. wanted to establish strong allies in the region in order to curtail Iranian influence. Iran is located almost entirely between Iraq and Pakistan on one side and Afghanistan on the other.

While the U.S. might not have entered Iraq and Afghanistan with the sole purpose of gaining control of the region, its significant presence in the region has provided strategic advantage against Iran if the need for invasion should ever arise.

The results of both wars have been devastating. Thousands of civilians and soldiers from both sides have perished.

Many lost their homes, property and families. Some survi-

vors have found an outlet for their grief by joining extremist groups, which has only exacerbated the violence in the region. Areas in Afghanistan continue to remain under the rule of the Taliban where young girls are shot at for attending school. The Iraqi government continues to discriminate against Sunni Muslims in Iraq.

Even though the two wars are coming to a close, the future of these two countries does not seem bright as people continue to fight for their survival.

Nobody knows what the next step for the U.S. will be. Some hope that it will deploy ground troops and deal with the ISIS threat directly.

Others wish that it will never get involved in such a conflict again. There is neither a correct answer nor a correct way to approach this issue. The hope, however, is that regardless of its decision, the U.S. is concerned more with improving the lives of the people of the region, than with other, political objectives.

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Ataturk of the M

: an Example of Stability M iddle East?

By Tessa Kellner

Photo by B端niD

41 Politics and History

C

onflicts in the modern Middle East continue to stump foreign correspondents and civilians alike. One likely reason for this confusion is the media’s poor coverage of these crises. As each new crisis surfaces, it is important to pay attention to two essential questions that headlines disregard: where does instability stem from and why are some countries struggling with extremism and nationalism in different ways?

Since the beginning of the Arab Spring, American media has depicted a desire for self-representation as the source of the increasing instability in the Middle East.

While the nationalist perspective helps American readers empathize with the plights of

the area, most articles fail to describe how each country reached the point of the rebellion. This type of coverage lacks the complexity each rebellion movement deserves; deep-seated reasons are planted firmly at the roots of the seemingly chaotic political scene.

So while switching to a

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Most articles fail to describe how each country reached the point of the rebellion.

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historical perspective may feel like stepping onto an academic soapbox, or like preaching to the few who specialize in the area, the distance can give a clearer view through the smoke of the current upheaval.

A force of stability in the Middle East stands as an example of how modern nation-building could end up. Turkey, now seen by the U.S. as a key military foothold and pillar of Western-friendly politics, strangely differs from its neighboring countries. With a thriving economy, Turkey remains a central part of the world economy such that it is even campaigning to join the European Union1. While the rebelling populations around the Middle East focus on restructuring their countries to their needs, Turkey has a large middle-class population, remains a strong member of NATO, and holds fast to its republican parliamentary democracy under the presidency of Abdullah Gul. So

Alp Enes Arslan

Photo courtesy of Tim Brauhn Ataturk’s portrait on the İstanbul Kültür University, a private university in Istanbul

why are other countries in the region suffering from instability?

To see a more full progression of Turkey’s representative government, history points to the solid founding of Turkey by a single-party leader of the 1950’s: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. From his leadership in the Turkish War of Independence against the occupying Allied forces, Ataturk became the head of the Turkish Republic and the embodiment of the Turkish spirit.

Though Turkey technically had a representative government, he ran a single-party government that acted as a primer for the later government to act as a

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true republic. Most notable of his reforms is his creation of a secular government. Secularization signified a chosen separation from the Middle Eastern circle of Muslim monarchies.

The region had never seen a representative government,

Secularization signified a chosen separation from the Middle Eastern circle of Muslim monarchies.

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and the Ottoman Empire’s final sultans had centralized power under themselves more than the leaders in the Ottoman’s Golden Era, leaving the country at the risk of falling

into a major civil war as regional politicians vied for power.

The Turkish republic sought to modernize Turkey by secularizing the country to disentangle itself from the Western stigma against Muslim countries, thereby saving it from Western manipulations.

While Ataturk successfully established the Turkish republic, his image has grown to mean more than an appreciation for Turkish history.

His face, still prominent in modern Turkey, sparks the topic of traditional Muslim governments in the modern-day Middle East. Now Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s image represents nationalism in general as well as pride for Turkey’s

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43 Politics and History

secular government.

But Ataturk’s legacy left more than a stable, secular, representative government in Turkey. His centralization of power and pervasive use of an almost God-like image created a cult of personality. As a single-party leader of Turkey, he was often portrayed as a dictator; however, he refused to become merely another Arab monarch. The Turkish population lavished adoration on his image because his leadership established Turkey as an independent, stable state with minimal fuss.

Since Ataturk’s death, his cult of personality continues and his image remains ubiquitous.

His portrait greets travelers in Istanbul’s airport, and the cars circling Taksim Square speed by the Ataturk Cultural Center, and nearly every small town has shops lined up on Ataturk Boulevard. The personality cult surrounding Ataturk is perhaps as strong as those that existed in the Soviet Union, and is rivaled—though many Turks would consider it blasphemous to say so—by the officially orchestrated adulation that has been showered on some Arab leaders2. Whereas Ataturk’s image during his own time meant an independent, Western-friendly Turkey, his present image is not simply a Turkish man who founded a country; Ataturk’s warped image shows him as a Western elite3.

Ataturk’s glamorized representation has grown to encompass the idealistic goals for Turkey, his image acting as a stamp of approval to win favor with the Turkish public. After

Photo courtesy of SpirosK Photography M.K. Ataturk equestrian statue, inspired by Western memorial statues, near Ulus in Istanbul all, Ataturk’s ideology included the principle of unity through sameness—part of the view that supported secularization4. If the present population can still be inspired by Ataturk’s image, they can also be manipulated by those who have changed his memory to him being a West-

ernized man.

While Ataturk’s secularization of Turkey allowed for him to bring swift reforms, the lasting impact also has negative effects alongside the general stability of Turkey amidst the turmoil of the Middle East.

While not in line with Ataturk’s

Photo courtesy of Neil Hester Banner in Yoruk Village

vision for the nation, xenophobia has found a welcome home in Turkey; this makes dealing with the West difficult when the Turkish people have an honest fear of foreign nations, and in general, nonTurks5. This proves that Turkish nationalism spouted from Ataturk’s dream of a collective Turkish consciousness. However, Ataturk’s desire for Turkey to be included in the Western economic sphere continues on in today’s fight for Turkey to join the European Union6.

Ironically, Turkey has been barred from the EU because of the sins of its ancestors, the Ottomans, whom Ataturk cut off from the Turkish identity in the first place. The Armenian genocide, considered a proven fact in the global community,

continues to be unacknowledged by Turkey; because Turkey occupies the land that witnessed the tragedy, it is unlikely that the EU will accept Turkey unless apologies and reparations are given.

Likewise, brutality against veiled women emerged as another negative outcome of Ataturk’s adamant support for women’s liberation—a mark of a Westernized society. As a sign of piety through modest dressing, veils should not offend Turkish people, but the emotional connection to the women’s liberation movement represents public dislike of veils as a particular trait of the Turkish public7. As nearby Middle Eastern countries struggle with physical violence

Photo courtesy of William Avery Hudson Banner of Ataturk on Yörük Koyu

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against unveiled women, Turkey struggles with political and social bullying against veiled women. While the issue proves the separation of Turkey from the Middle East, the cruel mishandling of women’s liberation morphed into religious intolerance.

From the present instability in the Middle East, Ataturk’s impact on Turkey represents an example of equalparts warning and encouraging how stability can be created by one politician. The comparison

between the Arab leaders and Ataturk draws the connection of how nationalism in times of political unrest seems to be on every politician’s platform. The similarity proves how leaders of opposite movements use fanaticism as a tactic of their campaigns and how their call for national pride can lead to harsh side effects. Ataturk’s image remains as complex as he was because he brought sense of unity to the Turks, suppression to the Kurds, and friendship to the West. Ataturk, still venerated in

Turkey today, successfully utilized the nationalism tied with his image to push Turkey into its own identity separate from the Middle East. Considering the case of Ataturk in Turkey, the current politicians facing a time of change in the Middle East hold immense power for shaping the future of their countries. While the struggle for suitable governments continues, hopefully worthy candidates will rise to represent the peoples of the Middle East.

References: 1.

"Turkey at a Glance," The New York Times. The New York Times, n.d. accessed October 3, 2014.

2.

Cengiz Çandar, “Atatürk's Ambiguous Legacy,” The Wilson Quarterly 24, no.

4 (2000): 88. JSTOR, accessed October 7, 2014.

3.

Esra Ozyurek, “Miniaturizing Ataturk: Privatization of State Imagery and Ideology in Turkey,” American Eth-

nologist 31, no. 3(2004): 375.

EBSCOhost, accessed October 3, 2014.

4. Leda Glyptis, “Living up to the Father: the National Identity Prescriptions of Remembering Ataturk, his Homes, his Grave, his Temple,” National Identities 10, no. 4(2008): 354.

ESCBOhost, accessed October 3, 2014.

5. Jeffrey Haynes, "Politics, identity and religious nationalism in Turkey: from Ataturk to the AKP," Australian Journal

of International Affairs 64, no.

3 (2010): 313. EBSCOhost, accessed October 3, 2014.

6. Jeffrey Haynes, "Politics, identity and religious nationalism in Turkey: from Ataturk to the AKP," Australian Journal of International Affairs 64, no.

3 (2010): 317. EBSCOhost, accessed October 3, 2014.

7. Amy Schwartz, “Ataturk’s Daughters,” The Wilson Quarterly 19, no. 4 (1995): 69.

JSTOR, accessed October 3, 2014.

Photo by MacPepper

23 Arts and Culture Photo by Dennis Jarvis

Framing Russia’s Nationalism through a Historical Lens

By Danni Ondraskova

Russia has gained

notoriety in the international community over this past year due to the country’s questionable actions in Ukraine. Many western countries accuse the Russian federal government of aiding rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk with Soviet weaponry and providing them the Buk surface-to-air missiles that are believed to have caused the tragic flight MH17 crash near the Ukraine-Russia border. The country has also been frowned upon for attributing the crash to the Ukrainian government and annexing Crimea, a southeastern coastal region of Ukraine, during the spring. Russia responded to these criticisms by signing a ceasefire on September 5 with the Ukrainian government and rebels, and withdrawing its soldiers from Ukraine.

The unpredictability and rapidity of Russia’s recent actions in Ukraine and Crimea raised questions in other

countries about the fledgling democracy’s ulterior motives in Eastern Europe. Many cite Russia’s desire to protect its borders and preserve its natural oil monopoly in Eastern Europe as main reasons why the country interfered with Ukraine, which had been turning from Russia to the European Union after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. The Russian federal government’s suppression of pro-Western groups and successful use of the country’s media as a propaganda machine help account for Russian citizens’ overwhelming support of the country actions in Ukraine. While all of these factors are crucial in explaining Russia’s motivations, Russia’s new breed of nationalism is arguably the most important piece of the puzzle. Today’s version of Russian nationalism has been oversimplified and caricatured by Western media to such a degree that only few foreigners can appreciate the origin, complexity, and evolu-

tion of Russian nationalism. In order to gain an appreciation for the multidimensionality and lessons of Russian nationalism, one must view the phenomenon through the lens of history.

Like the Roman Empire, Russia can trace its humble beginnings to a single city. The Grand Duchy of Moscow was the predecessor to the Russian Empire. In the 15th century, Ivan III greatly expanded the city-state’s territory and declared Moscow was “the third Rome,” implying that the capital of Christendom had shifted from Constantinople to Moscow. He also introduced the concept of tsar to the region, deriving the inherited position from the Roman Caesar. Modern Russian nationalism began in 1721 with the establishment of the Russian Empire and a revival in pro-Russian art and literature. An emerging nationalist strand named Pan-Slavism gained traction in the latter half of the 18th century and called

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49 Politics and History

for the unification of the Slavic peoples, who maintain many linguistic and cultural similarities. This idea was wielded by the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union as justification for “liberating” parts of Eastern Europe and Muslim-controlled Orthodox nations like Serbia and Romania. The ultimate goal of Pan-Slavism proponents was to incorporate Constantinople, or “the second Rome,” into the Russian Empire.

The Pan-Slavism movement soon encountered backlash from the Westernizers, Russian leaders and intellectuals who believed that the indus-

trial regression of the Russian Empire could only be solved by adopting Western institutions and practices. Even while greatly expanding the reach of the Russian Empire in the 18th century, Tsar Peter I modernized his domain by encouraging Western practices; the Russian nobility took on French as their primary language, wore Western clothes, and were more tolerant of unorthodox beliefs like nihilism. Westernizers were a prominent force for change in the 19th century.

During this time, Westernizers found formidable opponents in Slavophiles, who were support-

ed by Tsar Nicolas I under the motto of “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality.” Slavophiles were often upper-class citizens with conservative views who advocated preserving Russian traditions and a parliamentary monarchy. The influence of Slavophiles and Russian patriotic sentiment declined when serfdom was abolished in 1861 and the gap between rich and poor grew at the close of the 19th century.

From the 20th century onward, Pan-Slavism continued to wield considerable influence in Russian affairs. The Russian Empire, viewing itself as a

Photo courtesy A monument to the Russian military victory in the war with Napoleon’s France.

protector of Serbia, entered the Great War in 1914 to protect its ally and was heavily involved during the war until the Russian Revolution in 1917.

On the home front, there was a resurgence of Russian nationalism due to the empire’s enormous sacrifices. After citizens’ dissatisfaction with food shortages and the mounting war casualties, a reemergence of liberal ideology, and conflict between Tsar Nicolas II and the Duma reached a fever pitch, the Romanov Dynasty was overthrown. One civil war later, the Red Army defeated the nationalist White Army and

the Soviet Union was born.

When the Soviet Union was established in 1922, an ideological battle raged between the Eurasianists and Bolsheviks. The former group opposed the Bolsheviks’ militant atheism and anti-patriotism, maintaining that Russia was unique because the country had a foot in both Europe and Asia. On the other side of the spectrum, Vladimir Lenin and other Bolsheviks advocated internationalism, an ideology that emphasized the Soviet Union’s ties with other communist countries. The Bolsheviks ultimately prevailed, making

Russian the USSR’s official language and standardizing the Russian language. Lenin’s internationalism ideology was abandoned when Joseph Stalin succeeded him. In order to unite his country with a largescale war looming ahead in the 1930’s, Stalin exploited Russian symbols for political support and added them to the country’s new national anthem. Patriotic sentiment burgeoned in World War II, called the Great Patriotic War. While hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers occupied Eastern Europe during World War II, 24 million Russians died to protect

of Dennis Jarvis Named after Emperor Alexander I, who ruled Russia between 1801 and 1825

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51 Politics and History Photo by John Steedman

“The Motherland” from the Germans.

After World War II, much of western Russia was in shambles. Stalin oversaw the rapid industrialization and implantation of collective farms in the country. He silenced his opponents through the Soviet police and force-fed nation-

alism by censoring the press and mobilizing the dominant Communist Party. Stalin’s more moderate successors increased Soviet nationalism by pitting the Soviet Union in an ideological conflict with the United States. After Leonid Brezhnev’s death in 1982, the Russian people became increasingly

dissatisfied with the country’s stagnant economy and Communist Party’s corruption.

Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika, originally intended to invigorate the USSR’s economy and placate dissidents, achieved the opposite effect and contributed to an outpouring of free speech, rev-

olutions by satellite states, and ultimately the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The events of 1989 and beyond shook many Russians’ belief in the exceptionalism of their country.

Russia’s political and economic problems did not end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The 1990s were a tumultuous time for most Russian citizens. The weak leadership of Boris Yeltsin and hyperinflation of the ruble in 1998 made many yearn for a retreat to the Soviet Union.

Russia’s painful transition into a democratic state can be attributed to its simultaneous liberal reforms to the country’s political and economic

“

Russia’s political and economic problems did not end with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

”

systems. Increasingly stark economic inequality, terrorist activity in Russia, and a sense of shame connected to the fall

of the Soviet Union contributed to the recent surge in moderate and extremist nationalist movements. Extreme right-wing skinhead groups have gained prominence, and Eurasianism has reemerged in mainstream Russian politics. Both groups wish to regain territory lost by the USSR and Russian Empire because of their cultural, historical, and linguistic ties to Slavic countries. This logic helps account for the country’s aggressive actions in the Ukraine and Crimea.

Photo by Duncan C

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The Coronation of Globalization of a

By Rebecca Winterich-Knox

the “White Lady”: Beauty Standard Photo by Charles Roark

55 Beauty

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or a country with such incredible diversity, the United States has spent decades stubbornly propagating one, very specific image of beauty: that of the tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and impossibly slender “white lady.” She is plastered upon billboards and magazine covers, adorned with high-fashion clothes and paraded down runways, and stars in novels and films of all genres.

Her body, distinguished primarily by its thinness, has been sexualized, hyperbolized, and commercialized to the point that it seems universal. She is presented as the subject of perpetual envy, and she dares the Westerner and Easterner alike to mimic her in any way possible.

The deeply indoctrinated belief that this narrow, white-skinned image of female beauty as either timeless or universal is entirely misleading.

According to Sarah Lohman, a historian who specializes in the evolution of the dieting industry, the development of the “white lady” as the ultimate beauty standard was in part the conception of the affluent white men who held control of the marketing and media industries. To these men, the delicate physique of a woman emphasized her helplessness, softness, and dependence upon her stronger, more capable male counterpart. The fact that Hollywood and the American media gravitate towards starring a disproportionate number

Photo by joanneteh_32

of very petite white women— cartoon depictions, too, feature predominantly Caucasian female characters with humanly impossible proportions— send a false message that being exceptionally thin is merely the norm. It also perpetuates an exclusionary message of racial superiority: the West’s preference for the “white lady” informs women of color that they are innately less-than.

Even a disproportionate number of actresses and models of color display European facial features, such as delicate noses and wide eyes, and, of course, they also have slender bodies.

With this pervasive ideal of slender bodies, it is no surprise that the dieting and fitness industries are some of the largest in the business world. The United States dieting industry— today a $70 billion one— began in the late 19th century, when entrepreneurs such as William Banting preached against corpulence as a serious disability. While plumpness had been previously understood as a sign of wealth, health and fertility, by the turn of the century it was depicted more frequently as a symbol of corruption and sloth. The dieting industry was further aided by the standardization of clothes sizes that accompanied commercialized clothing production. With the introduction of a universal system of sizing, it became easier for women to find substantial basis for their perceived physical inferiorities.

The emergence of the thin ideal gained mainstream

Photo by Sophia A

popularity from the idolization of the 90-pound British model, Twiggy, in the 1960s, and it was made even more alluring by the link between rail thin bodies and the introduction of the androgynous heroin chic style of the ’90s. By the new standards of the thin ideal, beauty icons and idols of the past, including the venerated wide-hipped Marilyn Monroe, would no longer be held in the same high esteem today. It was pronounced as a desirable standard for adults and children alike with the development of Mattel’s mass-produced Barbie Doll, whose already-impossible proportions have only become more exaggerated over the years. And as the image of the “ideal” American beauty has evolved to favor increasingly tall and skinny body types, body image dissatisfaction has skyrocketed across the nation. Statistics by the National Eating Disorders Association

show that 80% of ten-year-old girls have dieted, and suggest that over a third of teenagers have attempted unhealthy weight-control methods, while an estimated 24 million people in the United States suffer from full-fledged eating disorders.

The emergence of this Western beauty trend has had global implications. In a movement not unlike the missionizing one of centuries’ past, the promotion of the white Western woman as the single, universal standard of attractiveness has spread with commercial fervor through the rest of the globe. In the last several decades, as the thin ideal has become popularized with the expanded reach of Western media and product marketing, cultures that once regarded a wider variety of body types as attractive have become increasingly subjected to the myth of the singular standard of beauty.

In East Asian areas that are

particularly bombarded with Euro-American media, such as Hong Kong, body dissatisfaction rates amongst women have increased dramatically.

High-income women with the financial resources, as well as time and energy, to commit to the beauty industry are particularly affected. Additionally, a 1992 study by researcher Zhang Feng Chun showed that nearly 80% of Chinese first-year female university students are unhappy with their weight.

In addition to promoting the ideal of the slender body, the widespread media dissemination of the “white lady” has contributed to mass dissatisfaction with what aren’t considered to be traditional European features. Plastic surgery, a procedure undergone in order to achieve these ideals, is on the rise globally. Blepharoplasty, a surgery that gives eyelids the distinct double fold that is characteristic of West-

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57 Arts and Culture Photo by bejealousofme

erners, but occurs naturally in only a small percentage of Asians, has surged in demand.

It is currently the most popular procedure performed in China, a nation which, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, ranks third in the world for the nation with most plastic surgeries performed annually (only behind Brazil and the United States). It is not uncommon for teenagers, particularly those from affluent families, to receive plastic surgery as a high school graduation present. In South Korea, plastic surgery statistics reveal that nearly a third of all women have received some form of cosmetic alteration, making the practice a norm. The influence of Western standards of beauty does not solely influence the behaviors of women – Korean men

too are frequent plastic surgery recipients, with an estimated 44% of male college students contemplating going under the knife.

Research conducted in Sub-Saharan African nations further confirms the correlation between Western media presence and body image dissatisfaction. A 2008 study conducted in Ghana by David Frederick, a professor of psychology at UCLA, suggests that the average rural Ghanaian woman— for the most part unexposed to Western media in the form of television, magazines, and advertisements— desires a heavier ideal body.

Thinness is associated with disease, poverty, and limited reproductive capacity.

The women of South Africa, however, as members of a nation with a high GDP and

subsequently larger exposure to Western media and marketed products, were found to subscribe more deeply to the thin ideal. According to a 2004 study published in the World Psychiatry Journal by researchers Szabo and Allwood, the majority of black South African female adolescents are unhappy with their weight, and a significant number use abusive weight loss methods. The most common reason given by the girls who stated that they wanted to lose weight was that they could wear more modern, fashionable clothes, manufactured in smaller sizes only, and that young men preferred thin women. In their pursuit of the attainment of the thin ideal, these adolescents not only believed they would be more desirable, but saw opportunity to sport the contemporary Western fashions

specifically marketed to slender women.

The promotion of the “white lady” in cultures distinguished by traditionally darker-skinned peoples, including those of India, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, has additionally led to a surge in the use of skin-whitening products. The companies behind these bleaching creams take advantage of the negative messages that white media propagates about the beauty of white skin. One popular skin-bleaching product called “Fair and Lovely” put out advertisements featuring an unhappy and unpopular tanskinned protagonist who, after a week of using skin-whitening cream, attained a higher social status, attracted male attention, and appeared to brim with happiness and self-confidence. Fair and Lovely’s own motto states, “Our Vision is to help people feel good, look good, and get more out of life”— a vision which is apparently attainable solely by looking whiter. This message also duplicates the colonial one in presenting the illusion that self-betterment can be pursued through prescription to the Western value system. Colonized cultures that resisted conversion to Christianity were told they had only themselves to blame for their ensuing mistreatment, just as men and women who reject these homogenizing cosmetic practices are dismissed as being responsible for their own lack of personal fulfillment.

The desire that drives

billions of women to alter and reduce their own bodies is not an innate phenomenon, but one has been socially indoctrinated in a postcolonial process borne of exposure to Western media influence. Globalization, in its promotion of Western culture as ubiquitously desirable, has resulted in the establishment of a singular beauty ideal that is universal primarily in its unattainability. The “white lady” is not only a myth, but also a threat, and a potent one.

Rather than being the timeless

image of attractiveness it has been accepted as, the thin ideal is a localized one, with a global proliferation, unrepresentative of its historical precedence. In order for the “white lady” to be dethroned as the sovereign standard of beauty, she must be acknowledged as the fraud she is: as a falsely inflated power whose image derives from a self-involved, capitalistic media, and whose presence deserves no bearing on the happiness and self-confidence of women across the globe.

Photo by bloomsberries

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59 Arts and Culture

India’s Pressure to be Pale

By Ilina Mitra

Photo courtesy of Adam Jones.

This advertisement in Chittagong, Bangladesh for Fair & Lovely Skin Whitening Cream encourages women to lighten their skin color as it is seen as more fashionable and beautiful to look fair.

F

air is Beautiful: This is the message that bombards Indians every day through billboard hoardings, commercials, and television shows. The phrase is used to persuade Indians to buy cosmetic products that promise to lighten skin tone. Popular public figures, including Bollywood actors and cricket players, have recently joined the chorus who suggests that light skin correlates with success. Laughable as that might sound, to most Indians the infatuation with light skin is serious business.

The twenty-first century has brought India into the spotlight as an emerging super power with a growing middle class and increasing job opportunities. Despite this rapid modernization, India is slow to

confront its demons, including its disturbing obsession with fair skin. The inherent prevalence of shadism, the discrimination of individuals based on skin tone, has roots that run deeply and insidiously through the country’s turbulent history.

Shadism’s historical underpinnings are found during the era of India’s stratifying caste system. The darker skin of the lower castes, most specifically the untouchables, who worked tirelessly under the grueling sun, became associated with hard labor. This directly contrasted with the light skin of Brahmins of the upper castes who spent their time studying religious texts and worshipping inside temples. Light skin began to serve as a marker for upper classes, and this discrim-

ination was perpetuated by British cultural dominance. The British colonization of India and the rule of the Raj reinforced the stereotype of fairness as a mark of the upper class.

Today, countless young Indians hear and internalize the subliminal message that success is associated with physical attributes; namely, lighter skin tone.

The cosmetic industry looks to capitalize on these insecurities, further preserving the antiquated notion that fair skin is the only beautiful skin tone. Unilever, perhaps the most wellknown consumer goods company in India, launched their “Fair and Lovely” campaign in 1978 and has not looked back.

India’s skin-lightening industry is a 432 million dollar market that drives a large

portion of the country’s steadily growing economy. In order for companies to survive, they must continue to reinforce the idea that fair skin is a mark of the wealthy and the elite. Skin lightening companies constantly run commercials and lower the price of their goods in an effort to cater to all buyers and increase their clientele.

But advertisements from these companies have taken a harmful turn. Commercials slyly make women feel ineligible for success if they are darker skinned. These commercials, coupled with matrimonial advertisements in newspapers specifically asking for fair-skinned women, show that mostly young women feel the negative effects of shadism.

The most recent advertisement to come under fire shows the famous Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan exclaiming that skin lightening is key to his success. The cultural landscape is heavily skewed in favor of physical attributes that do little to foster confidence and selfworth in women by putting unequal emphasis on light skin as the standard for beauty.

When Nina Davuluri, an Indian-American, was crowned Miss America in 2013, newspapers and blogs in India asked a pertinent question of its readers: Would Miss Davuluri ever win a beauty pageant in India? The answer, though unfortunate, was obvious. She would be considered too dark to be beautiful in India, and many Indians would be unable to celebrate her true beauty.

In reaction to this

deep-seated, yet hardly articulated discrimination, women are organizing to redefine previously held concepts of beauty. “Dark is Beautiful” is a new campaign to create safe and healthy environments for young girls to grow up in. The Dark is Beautiful movement was created by a larger organization, Women of Worth (WOW), whose mission is to “enlighten women to recognize their innate value, worth, and significance, encourage women to live up to their full potential, empower women by being a voice for equality, freedom, and justice, and equip women with skills and values to live the change they want to see.”

WOW started the Dark is Beautiful movement to combat India’s unhealthy obsession with light skin, celebrate beauty beyond color, and reverse the partnership that exists between Bollywood and the

skin-lightening industry. The WOW webpage describes Dark is Beautiful as “an awareness campaign that seeks to draw attention to the unjust effects of skin color bias and also celebrates the beauty and diversity of all skin tones.” The movement recently gained a new spokesperson in Nandita Das, a darker-skinned Bollywood actor who has openly discussed the discrimination she faces in the film industry and how the pressure to be pale has affected her life and work.

Although India’s problems with shadism cannot be fixed overnight through the work of one movement, these organizations have started a conversation that has been sadly absent. It encourages young girls to accept and love themselves for who they are and works to provide safe, healthy environments for women in the future.

Photo courtesy of Arian Zwegers.

Young women pose in front of the Birla Lakshmi Narayan Temple in Jaipur, India.

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Photography

Above: This is a black and white series of photos taken in Andes, Colombia by Khalidah Chin.

Top Right: Photo of street vendor by Shannon Hasenfratz.

Bottom Right: Photo of a fisherman by Shannon Hasenfratz.

The Wellesley Globalist Lecture Series 2014: Framed

By Tessa Kellner The Wellesley Globalist proudly presented a lecture on the theme “Framed” by Professor Roxanne Euben and Professor Selem Mekuria.

By relating the theme to their respective fields, each professor began by explaining what perspectives shapes the material they research and teach on a daily basis. In Professor Euben’s lecture, she unpacked terms and headlines from world crises that propagate the narrative of the clash of East and West.

Euben’s lecture, delivered as a call to action directed listeners to note how all Muslim material in the West is portrayed with deep-seated fear. Long before the events of September 11th and the invasion of Iraq, the West decisively chose to present Islam as an exclusively Middle Eastern religion. Euben posed questions about what is assumed in this Western portrayal of Islam and how language shapes these assumptions.

First, such an argument implies there is a distinctive West with clear borders and a homogeneous population. Second, this implies that Islam lives outside Western borders and belongs to a certain part of the world, essentially the Middle East. This dynamic makes “the West” synonymous with the U.S. As Islam lies outside of the U.S. in the narrative, it becomes a threat to be demonized and publicized as Professor Selem Mekuria (left) and the enemy of Western values.

Professor Roxanne Euben (right) In the West, the lack of public discussion the geographic and ideological variety of Islamic sects deprivies Islam of its role as a living tradition transformed and adapted by its believers in different contexts. Simplifying the world through general, loaded terms brings new realities into existence as younger generations find it harder to change inherited assumptions. Western fear of Islam will then become a self-fulfilling prophesy unless the West changes its conception and depiction of Islam as a religion of a the Middle East alone.

Professor Mekuria’s lecture built off of the Western understanding of Islam as she discussed her documentary project in Nigeria. As an artist and an academic, Mekuria focused on the power of perspective provided by filmmaking. Choosing shots, much like choosing words, reflects how the director wants others to see the world. Because documentaries show a version of reality, they make an argument for the way the world actually is.

For Mekuria, filmmaking simultaneously offers an unprecedented power to communicate and a limited means of expressing her version of reality. Her films seek a balance between actuality and her view in order to allow her audience to see her ideas in a visual format. The conflict between what to include and exclude extends beyond the film’s frames as Mekuria also considers what to sacrifice in terms of her identity as an Ethiopian and an American.

Concerning her progressive work on Sharia law and women’s rights in Nigeria, Mekuria faces the issue of how to introduce a topic to a viewer. Complex historical and political issues fetter any film as a director cannot capture every perspective. Rather than explaining the context of her documentary, Mekuria seeks to plant the seeds of interest to encourage viewers to educate themselves. Her film highlights a group of female lawyers defending women in Nigeria who face adultery charges and the possibility of stoning. Rather than fighting the Nigerian enforcement of Sharia law that inspired such brutal punishments, these lawyers protect themselves and other Nigerian women by taking ownership of Sharia which is neither divine nor unchangeable.

As this issue seeks to interpret the term “framed” under various subjects, we at The Globalist would like to thank Professor Euben and Professor Mekuria for applying the concept of “framed” to their own work.

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Photo by Eliza McNair

For more information about the Wellesley Globalist: Please visit our website, http://wellesleyglobalist.org, or contact us through our email, globalist@wellesley.edu