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(08/01/16 12:05pm)
In a recent article for The Guardian, Rafia Zakaria argues the current wave of expositional memoirs by women in the media — largely comedians — reduces feminism to insular and self-analytic “navel-gazing” wherein (upper-middle class, white) women attempt to subvert conventional gender norms — specifically, the expectation of coyness, delicacy, deference — by baring themselves emotionally in writing (and physically, on screen). The docile, obedient, chipper, squeaky-clean and atrociously dependent 1950s housewife becomes an acerbic, defiant, depressed, nasty, self-centered “modern woman.” Forget approval: the nastier the better, the edgier the more progressive. A reaction is necessary; let us womyn be as seen as our foremothers were unseen behind aprons and thick wooden doors of suburban duplexes. Let our voices be heard! But let them be heard saying only things that shock, awe, repulse. The unseen become the obscene, reinforcing the premise that women do not inherently deserve to be visible. The old caricature becomes its photographic negative and is therefore easily absorbed and promoted within the American cultural narrative. The notion that an independent woman is not socially acceptable has not changed, only now the independent woman is proudly, instead of shamefully, perverse. The Bronteian “madwoman in the attic” is lured out of the attic, but she is still incorrigible, only now she has an audience.
(04/27/16 4:37am)
On the evening of April 18, various transphobic and racist remarks were spotted scrawled in chalk around Grounds. Many of the students who stumbled across the statements sought to scuff them out or erase them, only to see them rewritten during the course of the night. One of these statements even read, “Confused about your gender? Look down your pants.” Another message explained the wealth gap “through alleged average IQ differences between white and black people.” The racist notion that there are inherent intelligence disparities between ethnicities was originally introduced by Arthur Jensen, “the father of modern academic racism,” who wrote an article in 1969 titled “How Much Can We Boost I.Q. and Scholastic Achievement?” In the article, he claimed that a nebulous “g” or genetic factor explained the differences in scholastic achievement between white and black students. Jensen was heavily bankrolled by — in the words of the Southern Poverty Law Center — the “racist radical right,” or RRR, and his writings were used as arguments against integration.
(03/15/16 6:34am)
On Feb. 26, the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society hosted Dan Ariely, renowned behavioral economist and author of New York Times bestselling books “Predictably Irrational” and “The Honest Truth About Dishonesty.” Ariely’s research focuses on why people behave irrationally: whereas basic economic theories are grounded in the assumption that all individuals are rational actors in the marketplace acting in pursuit of their interests, the reality is more complex. At the onset of his speech, he asked how many people have procrastinated in the past month, and almost everyone in Jefferson Hall raised a hand. Procrastination is part and parcel of the University experience, yet it is also indicative of doing the opposite of what is best for you: it is basic “irrational behavior.”
(02/16/16 5:07am)
In the summer of 2012, as the Obama and Romney campaigns were coming to a head, Gary Wills, Professor Emeritus of History at Northwestern University, wrote a clear-headed response to any who were disappointed with Obama for “failing to advance the progressive agenda” as far as his campaign of “hope” and “change” may have led his constituents to believe. In an article titled “The Curse of Political Purity,” Wills cautioned against political disillusionment, and reminds us that, in a two-party system, we should be wary of “the independent... who are too good to stoop toward the “lesser evil” of politics… [and] naively assume that if they just bring down the current system, or one part of it that has disappointed them, they can build a new and better thing of beauty out of the ruins…”
(12/04/15 5:05am)
In 1939, six months before the start of WWII, Raul de Roussy de Sales wrote, in an attempt to define American nationalism, “America is a permanent protest against the rest of the world.” Over half a century later, I would argue America is actually in a permanent protest against itself.
(11/18/15 5:10am)
On Friday, Nov. 13, two bombs were detonated in central Paris, which, along with a series of shootings, killed over 120 people and injured hundreds. The international response was swift: social media was overridden with cries of shock and sympathy, and within a few hours Facebook had introduced a filter of the French tricolour which users could superimpose on their profile pictures to “support France and the people of Paris.”
(11/10/15 5:00am)
When I was 17, I saw a live symphony performance of Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D minor in a hall on the Via della Conciliazione in Rome. It was thrilling, more so when I learned that the piece was in fact unfinished: Mozart died while composing it. The musical prodigy had — presciently, inadvertently — written his own requiem. It premiered at his funeral.
(11/03/15 5:30am)
Since arriving at the University a little over a year ago, I have heard far too many people preface their weekend experience with “Well, I was not as productive as I would have hoped, but…” Even if the rest of the story is comprised of the most fantastic nocturnal escapades, it is fettered by an ineluctable and socially induced guilt over feeling too good, similar to the guilt about looking too good that precludes women from accepting a compliment in polite company (a norm aptly presented and lambasted by the irrepressible Amy Schumer). In the United States, though most manifestly at large, prestigious institutions such at the University, there is a sense that one must maintain a veneer of professionalism and decry revelry by verbally slapping oneself on the wrist at every admission of participation in, much less unbridled enjoyment of, a social activity.
(10/27/15 5:39am)
Look at your browser window. How many tabs do you have open right now? I tend to average between 10 and 20, the tabs condensing until they are identical gray slivers pressed against each other, untitled and indistinguishable from one another. The Atlantic, Buzzfeed, Facebook, stray articles from various news sites — they are all rendered one and the same as on the round-edged Google Chrome template, despite varying in content. The Internet has become an overwhelming funnel of information: even if you only consider “legitimate” news publications, there are still over 1,000 news articles published every day, all awaiting Internet acknowledgment like a solitary grandmother seeking eye contact in the nursing home, eager to show off pictures of her grandchildren.
(09/29/15 4:00am)
There’s a viral link going around for “Google Fortuneteller,” a website that purports to use your search data to give you predictions about your future. When you click on it, you see the traditional search bar, which prompts you to “type in a question about your future.” Once you begin typing, however, the site autocompletes your query to “Where can I find a safe place?” and suggests other questions such as “Will I ever be reunited with my family?” and “Is there a place where they will accept me?”
(09/15/15 4:10am)
A few days ago, as I waited for an ice coffee at Grit coffee on Elliewood, I couldn’t help but notice that a girl sitting on the counter was engrossed in a podcast series called “How to Do Everything.” After a quick search on iTunes, it turned out the series comprised various “how-to” episodes on everything from “how to find a date, to how to find water in the desert,” the idea being that, with the right instructions, we can learn — and succeed — at anything alone. This notion is incorrigibly flawed, and feeds the damagingly negative assumption that seeking help belies weakness, and this frailty translates into failure as an individual. It does not, and we must realize and voice the fact that we cannot, and should not, do everything — particularly when it comes to treating anxiety and mental illness.
(09/08/15 4:05am)
In a recent class, my professor attempted to engage his students in a conversation about “culture.” It began with a definition of terms: what is culture? One girl said culture is comprised of unified community action. Another, that it was a shared set of values.
(08/27/15 4:00am)
In a National Public Radio interview on June 12, 2014, “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross inquired of Democratic hopeful Secretary Hillary Clinton, “Were there positions you believed in as senator but felt that you couldn’t publicly support because it wasn’t the right time yet? That the positions would have been too unpopular, that the public wasn’t ready?”
(07/29/15 4:00am)
On July 7, which marked the the anniversary of the initiation of Operation Protective Edge — formally beginning the Gaza-Israel conflict last summer —Snapchat featured Tel Aviv on its “Live Story” series, sparking a wave of indignation: Twitter erupted with protest as users interpreted Snapchat’s nod to the Israeli metropolis as “disrespec[ting] and ignor[ing] the Palestinian vantage.” Two days later, in an effort to appease its detractors, Snapchat gave denizens of the West Bank the opportunity to showcase their day-to-day life and surroundings through a “West Bank” Story. The timing of this virtual event was, albeit perhaps inadvertently, significant: beginning on July 7, 2014, over the course of two blistering months, thousands of Palestinians were killed, Israelis were blighted by fear and loathing, and a long-term ceasefire, much less coexistence, seemed wholly implausible. During times of relative peace, there is tension; during war, that tension transmogrifies into something thicker and darker, and the war-weariness that undergirds ‘normal’ life begins to spoil and smell. In Israel, as a consequence of multiple conflicts and a ceaseless campaign of “othering” by the Israeli government, many perceive the Palestinians as as a monolith: angry, alienated Arabs who exist outside of the Israeli consciousness and are incongruous with the Israeli way of life. Perpetual aggressors, they are unwelcome in Israel and yet never thought of as abstracted from it: any notion of Palestinian self-governance or sustainment is rejected by the right-wing government and its supporters.
(04/28/15 4:39am)
Recently, this newspaper published the most recent in a long line of articles assailing the idolatry of the University’s founder, Thomas Jefferson. The article posited that we must acknowledge the role slavery played in the inception of this University, and, by extension, permanently illuminate Jefferson’s enduring hypocrisy, which chagrins us and which we constantly attempt to mitigate. The Monticello website — under the “Property” heading — works to couch Jefferson’s slave ownership in apologetic terms: he was a benevolent slave master, it affirms, though he “did not always succeed in ‘lessening the violence of slavery.’” Further down, it lists “reasons” as to why Jefferson failed to free his slaves, none of which make mention of his moral cowardice, and the fundamental incongruence between his maximalist rhetoric on individual liberty and his complacency in the face of institutionalized oppression, a complacency shared by a great majority of his countrymen at the time. Jefferson was quite literally a revolutionary thinker — but ultimately he was only a man. It is a disservice to his legacy, and his ideals, to attempt to deify him.
(04/23/15 4:55am)
In light of last week’s Fourth Annual Tom Tom Founders Festival and the events it brought to Grounds, Arts & Entertainment sat down to chat with founder and director Paul Beyer to talk about the festival’s past, present and future.
(04/17/15 4:05am)
Recently, the Board of Visitors at the University approved a 3.9 percent tuition hike for existing in-state students, with further increases for freshmen entering the University throughout the next five years. In current dollar values, tuition for public four-year universities in Virginia has practically doubled in a decade, with comparable increases across the country. As of 2012, students are paying more out of pocket for public education than the state is, as federal grants for low-income households struggle to cover the rising sticker cost of education, which remains unmitigated due to state reluctance to allocate tax dollars to education subsidies. Is it worth it?
(03/25/15 4:36am)
On Feb. 18, The New York Times published an article reporting attempts by legislators in 10 states to pass bills that would legalize carrying guns on campus as a measure to reduce instances of sexual assault. Five days later, The Cavalier Daily’s Managing Board issued a response in which it vehemently refuted the notion that firearms would increase safety on campus; this argument was in line with a previous article in which the Board congratulated the Virginia senate for striking down a bill that would allow concealed carry on college campuses.
(03/17/15 5:10am)
Last summer, walking from the beach to my apartment in Tel Aviv, I saw an older man approaching on the opposite sidewalk. I would not have given him a second glance if not for his shirt. Bright green, it had the outline of planet Earth and the words, “THERE IS NO PLANET B.”
(02/25/15 5:20am)
A few weeks ago, shielded from the bracing cold in a warm room in the HackCville clubhouse on Elliewood Avenue, I was conversing with my co-organizers for upcoming Creative Lock-In. We had finished discussing logistics for the event and were sharing stories from our winter break. One of my peers recounted that she had met a girl from California, who, promptly after introducing herself, had asked her whether she’d ever had an epiphany.