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ADMINISTRATION
Schlissel on free speech, C.C. Little, DEI summit
Family Income and Student Housing Location
North Ingalls
Old Fourth Ward
Old West Side Germantown
South University Tappan
Oxbridge
Elbel
Under 10,000 10,000 to 30,000 30,000 to 60,000 60,000 to 90,000 120,000 t0 150,000 150,000 to 190,000 190,000 to 220,000 220,000 and up
East Packard
Yost
DESIGN BY EMILY HARDIE
Students think there’s more to housing than SES, survey finds
Results indicate students wary of expense, relationship between SES and location KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter
The Michigan Daily administered a survey to 1,000 randomly selected respondents at the University of Michigan campus. There were 100 respondents, representative of all offcampus neighborhoods as delineated by Beyond the Diag. The following
article includes data collected in this survey, particularly regarding the relationship between socioeconomic status and housing location. For Kinesiology sophomore Paige Willian, the matter of procuring off-campus housing was a decision shaped by recommendations from her peers rather than monthly rent — yet, after having lived in her
apartment for a couple of months, she said she now strongly believes housing is segregated by students’ financial situations. “Looking for housing last year, I was fortunate enough to not worry too much about the price of my living situation,” she said. “I chose my apartment building through recommendations from
older students I knew that were older than me who do happen to be of similar socioeconomic status to myself. This year I definitely see that this results in segregation of housing by how much students can afford.” According to the housing cost survey administered by The Daily See HOUSING, Page 3A
In monthly interview, ‘U’ president gives insight into his thoughts on issues ALEXA ST. JOHN & ANDREW HIYAMA Managing News Editor & Daily Staff Reporter
Considering the protests on campus that followed the speech from Charles Murray last month and student concerns over a possible visit from Richard Spencer, The Daily sat down with University President Mark Schlissel to address these issues, the progress the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan has made over the past year and the renaming of the C.C. Little building. The Michigan Daily: Since our last meeting with you, the one-year anniversary for the DEI plan has passed. How do you think the progress has been
going and how has its execution really been performed over the past year? President Mark Schlissel: I think the best way of answering that is to highlight next week’s summit. So we have a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion summit with multiple events through the week, which will include Rob Sellers and myself releasing our report on the first year, which has both a summary and then a whole bunch of individual reports from all the schools and colleges that lays out each of their objectives and reports on progress over the first year. If I had to say in general, I think the initiative is off to a good start, but there’s a huge amount of work to be done and there are some things that are immediate and short term, and there are See SCHLISSEL, Page 2A
Over 50 students call for divestment Research CSG body takes steps during Central Student Government puts brakes
RESEARCH
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
with Mars, technology
The assembly also passed a resolution on supporting funding for a SAPAC conference
‘U’ team thruster engine designed broke records in its speed and efficiency
It was a tense night in the Central Student Government chambers as attendees discussed the question of divestment and Students Allied for Freedom and Equality petitioned CSG to pass a resolution supporting the divestment from companies operating in Israel on the behalf of Israel. Last year, during the David Schafer administration — the previous CSG president — the resolution failed to pass — however, with its closest margin ever, at 34 to 13. A group of about 50 students from the Latinx Alliance for Community Action, Support and Advocacy arrived at the chambers during community concerns to present their case in support of the Palestinian students on campus — which is not yet a resolution. The group petitioned and spoke about how they believed in and supported divestment. “It is my moral obligation to stand here in solidarity with my Palestinian brothers and sisters,” Public Policy senior Gloriela Iguina-Colon said. “As Latinx people we know what it feels like to be run out of our homes, to know that there are legacies of colonialism persisting today, to feel in our souls the pain of ours and others’ oppression, to know that our liberation is bound together.” Representatives from LACASA
KATHERINA SOURINE Daily Staff Reporter
Black holes, new planet discoveries and now, breaking records. For University researchers, the sky isn’t the limit — and neither is space. A Hall thruster engine designed by a University of Michigan team has broken records in its speed and efficiency, compared to similar devices used in space technology today. The project research and development was headed by Alec Gallimore, University of Michigan professor of aerospace engineering and Robert J. Vlasic dean of Engineering. The development of a Hall thruster relies on technology which utilizes the power generation capability of a spacecraft through solar rays, putting power in a small amount of propellants, more than is possible through naturally occurring chemistry. This technology would replace the standard conventional chemical rockets, as it has been See MARS, Page 3A
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RHEA CHEETI
Daily Staff Reporter
related to the struggles of Palestinian students and spoke about how they believed these companies were committing human rights violations. Heated arguments formed as the group expressed their sentiments and were quickly silenced by CSG’s uniform processes and regulations. Some CSG members fired back and asked the community members to stop disrespecting them, to which the group responded by saying they were trying to make their voices heard to the people they elected as representatives. This later sparked a conversation among CSG members to pause rules and open caucus during agenda topics like community concerns in order to make CSG more
accessible to the general student body. Another group, who said they were Palestinian students speaking on behalf of other Palestinians, called on CSG to support them in having their concerns acknowledged by the University of Michigan. They called for CSG’s assistance in creating an ad hoc, unbiased committee of professionals to look further into the issue and hear concerns on both sides. “What we’re proposing with this resolution is for the University to create a board to make these decisions about divestment,” LSA senior Reema Kaakarli said. “What we’re asking for, because we know this is such a controversial and difficult topic, is for the University to create an ad hoc
committee to work directly with the divestment office, and put together a group of people who have a lot of knowledge about the University and how divesting would work.” The group called for CSG to acknowledge their voices and the needs of the students at the University, and asked for help in getting administration to do the same. They want a group of impartial individuals to research into the situation and student reactions and propose alternate companies to divest in. CSG also passed resolutions in support of funding a SAPAC conference, protecting resources that support survivors of sexual assault and a calculator loan program, both unanimously.
RHEA CHEETI/Daily Reporter
Students gather in CSG Chambers in support of divestment Tuesday evening.
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Vol. CXXVII, No. 21 ©2017 The Michigan Daily
on Meijer bus route
The old transportation service costed $1,600 a week for governing body JORDYN BAKER Daily Staff Reporter
The Meijer grocery shuttle, a Central Student Government initiative that last year provided students with a weekly bus shuttle to Meijer, has been discontinued for future use. The service was launched in fall 2016 under former CSG President David Schafer’s administration, which worked closely on the issue of food insecurity on campus. According to Engineering junior AJ Ashman, CSG chief of staff to the vice president, the program began with a commission within Shafer’s administration in order to assist freshmen who live off campus or who might not be aware of the food options available to them outside of the dining halls. Specifically, a goal of the administration was to help those students of low socioeconomic backgrounds find less expensive food options, as many grocery stores in the heart of campus are more expensive are than See MEIJER, Page 3A
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SUDOKU.....................2 CROSSWORD...............6 SPORTS...................7
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2A — Wednesday, November 1, 2017
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CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES Climate of Capitulation: An Insider’s Account of State Power in a Coal Nation
Transparency: The Neglected Question in Science and Values
From Land to Sea: Reconceptualizing Southeastern Europe as a Region
WHAT: Vivian Thompson will discuss environmental polic at the state level. WHO: Program in the Environment WHEN: 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. WHERE: Weill Hall , 1110 Betty Ford
WHAT: A workshop and seminar on legitimate versus illegitimate principles in science. WHO: Department of Pilosophy WHEN: 11:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. WHERE: Angell Hall , Room 1171 (Tanner Library)
Career Panel with Meijer for Students with Disabilities
Examining Engineering Concepts in Practice
Discussing the Future of Racial Justice Organizing at Michigan
WHAT: Shane Brown of Oregon State University will discuss the learning of concepts within Engineering studies. WHO: Engineering Education Research WHEN: 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. WHERE: Pierpont Commons, Boulevard Room
WHAT: Generations of Black activits who attended the University of Michigan will speak at a panel discussing racial justice at U-M and where the University needs to go. WHO: LSA Bicentennnial Theme Semester WHEN: 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. WHERE: Tisch Hall, Room 1014
WHAT: A panel discussing topics of internships and careers with Meijer, diversity, disability, and inclusion. WHO: University Career Center WHEN: 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. WHERE: Program Room (3003) University Career Center
SCHLISSEL From Page 1A other things that we start now and we are going to have to be continued for a long time and there’s still other things that we learn about and decide there are better ways to do the things that we already started doing. So it’s very much a living and continuously renewing plan. Some of the things I’m most excited about is we’ve got a number of pipeline programs up and running, including Wolverine Pathways that works with students in seventh through 12th grade and it’s after school, on the weekend and (in) summertime and, at the end, if they do well, and they get into the University, we promise them a generous scholarship at the end. And we’ve launched the Go Blue Guarantee in January, which is designed to promise socioeconomic diversity on campus, and when you get socioeconomic diversity you also get geographic diversity and all different kinds of diversity come along with that, so those things
are going well. The schools and colleges are working on their local plans to work on the climate locally and in each of our schools to gauge how well we appreciate and address issues of difference between humans. There’s an inventory work that has been done — diversity inventory work has been done in the dorms, so there’s a lot of activity. Another big thing that we’ll talk about at the summit was one of our major goals of the first year, which was a campus climate survey. We’ll be releasing the results in the coming days. … It asks the question: How are we doing? What is it like to be a student, or a faculty or a staff member here at the University and it’s disappointing but not surprising I guess is that different people experience this campus very differently based on where they’re coming from. So I think those results are very important to show us where to focus our efforts, to establish a baseline we can use to track whether we are improving the campus climate. The end goal is to have each individual here — no matter
WHAT: A talk discussing the influence of waterways when thinking about the Blakans. WHO: Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies WHEN: 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. WHERE: Weiser Hall, Room 555
where they come from — have equal opportunity and a similar quality of experience, feel like they’re being equitably treated and being a full member of this large and diverse community. So we’re going to roll out that and speak during the diversity summit on what we’re learning or what we’ve learned from the climate survey. There will also be a fantastic keynote address by perhaps one of the most famous senior scholars in this area, a professor from Stanford named Claude Steele, who came up with a theory that has lots of support about something he calls “stereotype threat.” In effect, people internalize what the stereotypes are for their identity and that internalization affects their behavior and can self-perpetuate that identity, sometimes unfairly. So it’ll be a great talk; I encourage people to go. It’s been a lot of effort — we’ve maintained the engagement and interest across all the schools and colleges, a lot of good initial things are happening and there’s a long way to go. TMD: As you mentioned campus climate and the fact that different students have different experiences here, is there anything else specifically that you would say needs further specific attention as far as the DEI plan or anything that hasn’t been up to your standards or expectations? Schlissel: I wish that all the things we’re working on could go faster. I wish that we could more quickly get to an environment where the quality of everyone’s experience is quite similar to everyone else’s experience. I wish that we wouldn’t be derailed by these episodic episodes of racism and other kinds of hurtful, insulting messages in our environment. I wish that our campus demographic could improve more quickly — in other words, get a more representative mix of students in our society. I think we’re making progress See SCHLISSEL, Page 3A
Judy Suh @jude_whaaa
Interested in teaching and working in Japan after graduation?
my future children will dress as the spookiest offense team ever, Umich Football
WHAT: An information session on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. WHO: Center for Japanese Studies WHEN: 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. WHERE: Weiser Hall , Room 455
Bad And Boozee @_faschaniecesta
Ultimate Insiders: White House Photographers and How They Shape History
umich pets followed me and I might just mute everyone but that account so I can have some peace.
WHAT: White House Coorespondent Ken Walsh will discuss presidential photographers. WHO: Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library WHEN: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. WHERE: Gerald Ford Library
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MARS From Page 1A proven to have the capability to be much faster and use significantly less propellant than regular rockets. “With a standard conventional chemical rocket the gas leaving the back might be leaving at something like 4 or 5 kilometers per second. Our systems can do 20, 30, 40, even over 100 kilometers per second of exhaust velocity. And that translates into allowing the spacecraft to go much faster, anywhere from twice to 10 times as fast as a conventional spacecraft can go,” Gallimore explained. With this technology, both robotic systems and people have the capability to be transported from one place to another in space, either using less propellant than a normal rocket or traveling there at a much faster rate. Both possibilities are of interest to NASA and have been invested in through the Next Step project, which has allowed researchers to develop these prototypes. This technology is both 10 times faster than any engine that is currently used in space and has broken NASA’s record for thruster speed made several years ago. The next step for this research is to operate a thruster at al least 100 kilowatts for 100 hours continuously. Gallimore is optimistic that by 2018, with
minor modifications based on what they have learned from this round of testing, the thruster will be capable of going much more than 100 hours continuously. Gallimore expressed appreciation that his research can coexist with his roles as dean of Engineering and a professor. “One of the things I’m really happy about is how research, and the education of students through research, is something that the University of Michigan does very well, in comparison to many of our peer institutions. I am really fortunate as dean to be able to demonstrate this in person by my own research that I still do, and by the fact that I have amazing students,” he said. This group includes Engineering graduate student Scott Hall, who worked as a research fellow with NASA on this project and has been offered a position to work at center where he conducted research after getting his Ph.D. He explained the test’s importance as the culmination of his own work with aerospace engineering. “A pretty large team has been working on the project since well before I even came to grad school. It was an amazing experience to be a part of the passionate, dedicated group of engineers and technicians at NASA that I worked with to accomplish this test. I’ll be defending my dissertation based heavily on that experiment in a few weeks,” he said.
MEIJER From Page 1A those outside of the University of Michigan’s borders. During the first few weeks of the initiative, Ashman said, CSG paid for the buses —about $800 per bus. With this, they were able to provide one shuttle every other week. Eventually, Meijer noticed high interest among students using the shuttle and offered to pay for the program themselves, which allowed two shuttles to run every week. This year, however, Meijer discontinued funding as they begin to join recent trends to have groceries delivered directly to homes and students, so as to compete
HOUSING From Page 1A over the past two weeks, 85 percent of survey respondents believe housing in Ann Arbor is segregated by income level. 26 percent of the respondents come from families making over $220,000 annually, while the second largest percentage was the 22 percent of respondents from families making $120,000 to $150,000 annually. Less than 11 percent of respondents come from families making less than $60,000 per year. In 2016, Michigan’s median household income was $52,492 — a stark contrast to the median household income of $154,000 for University of Michigan students. Additionally, 9.3 percent of students’ families make upwards of $630,000 per year. Willian further noted housing is segregated by student preferences, rather than solely by family income. She emphasized how athletes often choose to live by their practice facilities, most commonly in the Yost neighborhood, rather than other neighborhoods off-campus. “I would also say housing is definitely segregated by where
SCHLISSEL From Page 2A in all these areas but I share the frustration effort from many students and also faculty and staff that it’s just too slow. Change isn’t fast enough. TMD: Specifically to that point, there was Tabbye Chavous, the director of the National Center for Institutional Diversity, who was quoted back in February saying that “this Fall will likely have an appreciable difference on our faculty (in terms of diversity).” How are things on that front? Schlissel: I don’t have faculty numbers. The DEI office,
Wednesday, November 1, 2017— 3A
with other delivery services such as Amazon. “They didn’t see the value in having a bus bring kids to their locations when their real goal was to have students order the groceries and have them delivered to them,” Ashman said. CSG, unable to provide funding for what would amount to $1,600 per week, decided to cut the program from their budget. This was in order to continue paying for other programs such as Student Organization Funding Commission — which helps fund student organizations — as well as financial aid support. “We tossed it around for a bit and ultimately decided we just couldn’t, we didn’t want to start it and stop it and we
couldn’t eat that cost for a whole semester or a whole year,” Ashman said. “That was going to impact a lot of other stuff we wanted to do which was also important work. We didn’t want to make that commitment.” Though CSG looked into other ways to provide students with a grocery shuttle, Ann Arbor public buses The Ride currently allow students direct transportation to off-campus grocery stores. Engineering sophomore Olivia Sun used these services last year, and said because of the options available to students she feels the need for a specific shuttle from CSG is not as significant. “I heard about (the CSG Meijer shuttle), but I never used it,” she said. “I personally don’t see (its discontinuation)
as an inconvenience to myself just because I was already able to take a (Ride) Bus to Meijer … since that bus already goes there I don’t see the need for there to be a specific shuttle just to go to Meijer.” Addressing food insecurities on campus was a large part of the Shafer administration platform and an issue included as part of eMerge’s campaign last spring. CSG committees are currently working on other means to combat the issue, such as providing farmers markets on campus and partnering with dining halls to include fresh produce options within University dining. “We certainly have not forgotten about the issues of food insecurity and access to healthy foods on this campus,” Ashman said.
students prefer to live in addition to what they can afford,” she said. “To my understanding, many of the athletes live closer to where their practices are held. I live on South U near Central Campus, in a location that is close to my classes. I don’t really have to go near the sports complexes besides for on game day so I wouldn’t like to live too far away from Central. I also chose this location because there are many other apartment complexes in a close vicinity and a lot of the friends I made last year live in this area too.” Engineering junior Siddharth Ramesh further supported this, stating though Ann Arbor certainly has an issue with expensive housing, he believes housing is expensive across the map — rather than segregated by certain neighborhoods. “When I first started the search for a place off campus I was astonished by how expensive every place was. I would say that yes, housing off campus is segregated by price, but I think the primary factor is proximity to campus,” he said. “Apartments and houses closer to campus are a lot more expensive, apartments especially, and then they get
cheaper as you go farther out.” Ramesh said his hunt for housing was based around his own personal preferences, as he knew he would be paying a large amount for monthly rent regardless of location. “Once I reconciled myself with the fact that I was going to be paying close to $1,000 per month for housing, I think my primary factors in determining where to live was how far the house was from where I studied plus from where my roommates studied plus area of common spaces plus food options near by,” he said. The median rate for rent in Ann Arbor increased 14 percent from 2010 to 2015, reaching $1,075 per month — even as the amount of high-density housing has jumped by 32 percent — according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, this data is for the entire city and may not be reflective of the cost of housing for students specifically, most of which are clustered downtown. In fact, the survey showed the average monthly rent of respondents to be approximately $772. Rather than living in a neighborhood after freshman
year, many students choose to instead live in one of the numerous luxury apartments scattered across Ann Arbor, such as Landmark or Foundry Lofts. However, with monthly rates going for upwards of $1,000 per person, depending on the size of the apartment, these apartments only cater to a certain percentage of the student body. As developers constructed these high-rises in the center of the city, they touted the benefits of bringing an influx of wealth to the area. Furthermore, they initially believed the construction of such buildings would cause rental prices for houses further from campus to drop — a phenomenon that has not yet been proven. In an interview with the Ann Arbor News in 2012, local commercial real estate agent Peter Allen said though the apartments are expensive, the average University student can afford to pay for convenience and extra amenities. “The profile of students can afford these super ammenized, very convenient locations,” he said.
received a bunch of requests most recently from students in support of our DACA students, and a number of these things have been put into place. It’s mainly making sure that our entire community that is subject to these changes in immigration rules and regulations knows where to turn for information and knows where to turn when they need help. So we continue to improve our ways of making it easier for people to reach out and to know who to reach out to. But the important thing from the University perspective is we wouldn’t be Michigan without being a magnet for people from all around the world — and at all levels: faculty, staff and students. For students, we’re committed to all the students that are here, helping them achieve their life ambition. As a lifelong educator, the notion that somebody wants to make their life and their family’s lives better by getting educated — there’s nothing more worthy of support than that. We’re at the stage now, though, where also our professional organizations are lobbying Congress to come up with a more definitive solution to the DACA situation. So the DACA was a set of regulations that, you saw from recent events, could be overturned. The government changes, you overturn the regulations. The hope is to turn the DACA situation into a law — an act of Congress — that will give long-term assurance and stability to young people that are in the DACA category. The other thing that really weighs on me is 20 percent of the Michigan faculty was born outside the United States. Just think of the advantage that our University and our country has by being a magnet for talent from all around the world. Why would we want to give that up? Why wouldn’t we want talented, hardworking people to come here and join our country and contribute to our shared wealth? So that’s why the immigration issue is really important for the University. TMD: Shifting gears toward C.C. Little. So there’s an advisory committee for its renaming. What progress has been made in that
committee, what have the main considerations been, and what does the timeline look like? Schlissel: As you know because you published this, there has been a formal request, very well documented, made by a group of students with some faculty help — or maybe for my faculty colleagues I should say faculty with some student help — making a request that we consider removing the name. C.C. Little, of course, is a former president of the University and it’s a big deal. A year ago, we had a committee that has existed for a while called the President’s Advisory Committee on University History go through a discussion to advise us about what are the criteria we should use when these kind of questions come up. So that was before we ever got the C.C. Little question or Winchill — another former faculty member who has a hall named after them — where the question has also been raised over whether that naming is appropriate. So this committee spent a number of months saying what are the criteria we should use to judge these cases, how do we even think about a request to change a name? They came up with a bunch of recommended principles — those are posted up on my website for the whole community to see. And they’re a very valuable guide for how we deal with the proposal that was raised with C.C. Little. So what I did when I got the request for the Little naming was first look at the overall request to make sure it seems serious to me and detailed enough to forward to the committee and I thought it was and the committee agreed. The committee has been working on this request now for a few months. What they’ve been trying to do is apply their criteria to this particular question. For example, one of the more interesting and challenging criteria is: You can imagine there are many ideas that in today’s context seem ridiculous, that they’re so out of step with our current values and the current social norms in our society that they make no sense.
I’m sure, does. But programs are up and running in each of the schools and colleges that are designed to purposefully increase the diversity of the faculty, to use legal means, but to purposefully look for scholars that enhance the study of or the environment for diversity and inclusion on campus. One of the programs that I think is the most robust is happening in our largest college, in LSA, there’s a postdoc program. Postdocs are potential faculty members who have already finished their Ph.D. They’re not quite ready necessarily for an independent faculty position but they come and work at the University for a year or two, they do a little bit of teaching, they continue working on their scholarship, and if their career progresses, we have an assistant professor’s position waiting for them. LSA began a program as part of their diversity plan to set aside quite a number of these postdoctoral slots for scholars that would help us either with the study of diversity or in building a more diverse and equitable community. They’re making good progress on that, so that’s an example, but I don’t have the numbers to share with you. There’s a lot of information in this and I’m still absorbing the information. We’ll have plenty of time at the diversity summit to actually discuss and answer questions about the information, and then the data will be made available so that individuals can look at the data and draw some of their own conclusions. TMD: One of the things we wanted to address was your support for undocumented and immigrant students, specifically at the Regents meeting earlier this month. What has come out of the immigration working group? Has there been any progress on requests from students, such as liaisons, or financial aid? Where are we with that? Schlissel: This immigration working group continues to function. It interacts with both individuals and then organizations representing groups of individuals. It has
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Opinion
4A — Wednesday, November 1, 2017
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NOAH HARRISON | COLUMN
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LEVI TEITEL | COLUMN
O
Consumer consciousness
n my family’s annual hibernal sojourn to visit family in the Northeast, I wore a red T-shirt I bought online from an American Apparel sale. The front read: “Legalize LA!” We always took the shortcut through Canada, which required us to go through customs. While the customs officer was checking our passports, he noticed my shirt. “What does that mean?” My parents and I abruptly explained to him that he needn’t worry about this sartorial protest. Flash forward a few years. Now a junior in college, I have the liberty to explore Ann Arbor at will. I walked down Liberty Street and noticed signs that indicated the campus’s American Apparel closure. Once summer passed, store operations ceased, and now all that remains is an empty storefront. So long to my adolescent years of trying to emulate the aesthetics of alternative culture. American Apparel was an instance in which we could have been more conscious consumers. If we first acknowledge the process behind a product being made and ways companies utilize messaging to keep their respected place, we will be able to avoid supporting business practices that hurt others. Recently I have been thinking about how certain economic and political actions end up contributing to injustices, whether or not these acts are intentional. Things we buy, statements we make and brands we associate with can have dire consequences if we do not address how we may be oppressing others by our tacit support. In today’s discourse surrounding women and immigrants, a need to reconsider these attitudes becomes even more urgent. The red T-shirt I wore through customs probably would not have prevented me from re-entering the country, yet this experience does not compare to those of students at this university who are directly affected by dramatic shifts in immigration policy. When
I wore that red T-shirt as I crossed the border, I intended it to be a show of support for the rights of immigrants. This pro-immigrant stance mirrored that of the ex-owner of the company I bought the shirt from. Dov Charney, a Canadian-born entrepreneur, started American Apparel in the late 1990s. It blossomed into the quintessential hipster brand for the licentious youth to buy a plain T-shirt for upwards of $30 — until recently.
Taking concrete action would have been a better tactic than trying to look cool. American Apparel clothing was made in Los Angeles by a multicultural production staff, paid fair wages and provided transparency in company practices. The company embraced progressive attitudes toward gay rights and advocated on behalf of their workers for immigration reform, seen in their Legalize Gay and Legalize LA social justice campaigns, respectively. This platform drew many customers to support American Apparel’s mission and became profitable by doing so. However, these utopian visions were met with a divergent reality. Workers complained about factory conditions. There were numerous sexual harassment allegations against Charney, and their ads routinely objectified women. The company dismissed undocumented employees, and lawsuits followed in swift succession, which soon turned Charney from a visionary to a serial nuisance. American Apparel’s board let Charney go and the hopes and dreams of innovation and patriotism which Charney instilled into the brand soon followed. Perhaps if consumers knew this background they would
not give the company their unequivocal support. Thinking they were helping end one oppression, they had no idea what was actually occurring behind company doors. Whether or not the increased number of allegations was either correlative or causative with American Apparel’s bankruptcy, a company board and media attention found no friend in Charney. The past few weeks in culture and politics have brought forth revelations our country has never dared discuss. The damning reports in The New York Times and The New Yorker regarding Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s long history of sexual harassment and assault have catalyzed a societal dialogue captured in social media with the now-trending #MeToo. With victims speaking out with such velocity and innumerability, there is no way to dispute that harassment and actions far worse are endemic within companies. Unfortunately, most of the time consumers are left in the dark because companies attempt to conceal these allegations from the public. For publicly traded companies like American Apparel, how can shareholders keep executives accountable when there is not even accountability among the highest orders of authority? These dark secrets are shrouded under a veil of misinformation, like American Apparel’s marketing campaign promoting equality. Much has changed from when I first bought my T-shirt at American Apparel, and I’m not sure if simply wearing this shirt really helped the causes I was trying to support. Maybe taking concrete action would have been a better tactic than trying to look cool. And under this false premise of political awareness and expression, I thought I was giving others a voice who needed one. My lesson has been learned. Do your research. One kind of oppression does not substitute for another. Recog nize all the implications of your f inancial decisions. Levi Teitel can be reached at lateital@umich.edu.
MICHELLE SHENG | MICHELLE CAN BE REACHED AT SHENGMI@UMICH.EDU
L
Trump’s big bluster
ast week, the United States Navy announced the redeployment of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Nimitz from the Middle East to the Pacific Ocean, where it will join two other carriers already stationed there. Its arrival marks the first time since 2007 that the U.S. has positioned three carrier strike groups in the region and represents an intriguing development in the escalation of tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. Despite the Navy’s unremarkable announcement of the Nimitz’s redeployment, the move drew considerable media attention, as most defense experts believe the presence of multiple carrier strike groups is a critical prerequisite for any preemptive military action against North Korea. Furthermore, the carrier’s arrival coincides with the deployment of other advanced warships to East Asia and comes amid reports that the Pentagon is considering putting nuclear bomber planes on 24-hour alert. These developments would likely be less scrutinized if not for the incendiary rhetoric of President Donald Trump and others in his administration. Though nearly three months have passed since Trump threatened to strike North Korea with “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” tensions remain high. In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, Trump mocked Kim Jong-un as a “little rocket man” and again threatened military conflict. Though widely criticized as extreme and aggressive, Trump’s sentiments were reinvigorated by Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., who assured that the “fire and fury” remarks were “not an empty threat.” North Korea has responded with its own provocations, including threats to attack Guam, “ruin” the U.S. military and develop the world’s most powerful nuclear weapons. Though North Korea’s bluster is nothing new, under previous administrations, the U.S. typically declined to retort. Unfortunately, the bellicosity of Trump, Haley and others in Trump’s administration has often overshadowed cooler heads. For example, Defense
COREY DULIN | COLUMN
T
Secretary James Mattis has emphasized the resolute unwillingness of the U.S. to accept a nuclear North Korea while acknowledging the “catastrophic” consequences of war. Mattis is right — war with North Korea would indubitably be severely destructive and possibly result in upward of millions of (mostly civilian) deaths and trillions of dollars in economic damage.
The bellocosity of Trump... has often overshadowed cooler heads. There is no simple military solution to North Korea; any military invention is certain to be massive, lengthy and costly. Yet, alarmingly, the public statements of Trump and many of his advisers suggest a disconnect between his administration’s vision of a potential war and the actualities of military intervention. In the same interview in which Haley defended Trump’s “fire and fury” remarks, she curtly stated that if diplomatic solutions failed, “General Mattis will take care of it.” Likewise, at his U.N. speech, Trump declared that the U.S. may have “no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” implying the existence of a straightforward, painless military solution. Both Haley and Trump’s comments reveal a deeply flawed and objectively inaccurate perception that military conflict with North Korea would be easy and fruitful. Perhaps even more frustrating, their comments demonstrate a profound failure to learn from the U.S.’s recent history of repeated foreign policy blunders. This is most analogous to military interventions in Iraq and Vietnam, where unrealistic expectations and the absence of clear long-term objectives drew the U.S. into long and costly conflicts. This is not to diminish the threat posed by North Korea nor to contend that military
intervention is categorically unwarranted, but rather to suggest that the current situation with North Korea is a delicate issue that requires thought and level-headedness. Defense concerns surrounding North Korea are legitimate; the CIA believes North Korea is merely months away from realizing the ability to strike the U.S. mainland with nuclear weapons. Given North Korea’s reputation for aggression and unpredictability, it must be prevented from attaining this capacity at all costs. The U.S. must also be prepared for, and willing to implement, military solutions should the situation deteriorate to the point where there are no other options. However, any military solution to North Korea must be recognized for what it is: a costly, unideal and lastresort option to counter a direct threat to national security. Trump’s willingness to respond to North Korea’s rhetoric and issue dramatic threats of his own is troublesome. The rapid escalation of tensions and series of North Korean weapons testing over the past few months has shown that Trump’s bombastic comments serve to embolden, rather than intimidate, North Korea. Though one could argue Trump’s brash and direct persona has paid political dividends, this style is ill-suited for crafting effective foreign policy. Foreign policy decisions are often not easy nor easily undone, and their consequences are often irreversible, which just serves to underscore the importance of approaching such decisions with considerable thought and care. On the matter of North Korea, Trump’s bluster has only further destabilized an already precarious situation. Trump is set to embark on an overseas trip to East Asia soon, which will include a visit to South Korea. Undoubtedly, the president will face many questions from world leaders and international media regarding tensions with North Korea; it would do him and the U.S. well to embrace nuance over bluster when he answers. Noah Harrison can be reached at noahharr@umich.edu.
Rappers
his is a man’s world. 2017 is a woman. That woman, Despite all the Nicki Minaj, has some words for accolades women have the industry. won and the inequalities we On Oct. 25, Minaj released continue to work a series of tweets against, women still showing how receive deplorable undervalued she feels treatment and are as an artist because usually left with less she is also a woman. than they deserve. Who society It’s evident in the typically pictures as scandal of Harvey a rapper or hip hop Weinstein, who artist is very different used his wealth and from Minaj. The image power to intimidate of a rapper is typically COREY young female actors a man who is tough DULIN and make them feel and intimidating, like they had no who wears his wealth choice but to do what he wanted. on his sleeve and who says Weinstein then paid off his whatever he feels, no matter if victims to keep them quiet and it is offensive or crass. Society is leave his reputation untainted not used to and not comfortable in the public’s eyes. It’s evident with women who display some in the continuous gender of these characteristics; women wage gap despite the fact that who are assertive, outspoken or women are more likely to have speak about taboo subjects, as a bachelor’s degree. It’s evident Minaj does, are not embraced by in the feeling of needing to society in the same way as men. have a makeshift weapon ready In one tweet Minaj notes that when walking alone at night and the discussion of “The Greats” getting catcalled on the streets. often ignores women. Just Sexism is ingrained in every type in “Greatest Rappers of part of our culture, and we all Time” in Google; there are can see and hear it play out only a few women mentioned. especially well in hip hop. This Some lists will include Minaj, is not a new discovery — we’ve Lauryn Hill, Salt-N-Pepa and known that hip hop has been Missy Elliot, but there’s no criticized for its misogynistic mention of other rappers like lyrics in the past, and artists Queen Latifah or Lisa “Left continue to perpetuate sexism. Eye” Lopes. While hip hop artists have Minaj elaborated on sexism begun to reflect on how lyrics in hip hop in 2014 during an contribute to misogyny and interview with Hot 97. create songs that do not focus “The game is run by men,” on the objectification of women, Minaj says in the clip. “Men radios still play songs with slyer feels like it takes something hints of sexism. away from them to give a female We should expect more props the way they would give from this industry, but its Jay or Kanye or Em.” representation of women is not In the interview, Minaj also surprising considering how points out the use of qualifiers male-dominated it is. According as exceptions. “Don’t say I’m to Forbes, only one out of the 20 good for a girl,” Minaj tells highest paid hip-hop artists of the radio DJ. This is exhibited
throughout our society, because when talking about public figures like artists or politicians, people often put “female” before their job title. No one does the same thing for men. There is no need to always use “female rapper” when talking about Nicki Minaj or other rappers like Cardi B. Minaj also calls out the DJ for mainly playing tracks by Minaj that feature male artists. She can’t exist as her own entity; she has to have a man on her track or be featured on a track by a man. But clearly that is not the case — her songs “Super Bass” and “Starships” did just fine without featuring a male artist. In addition to having the confidence often associated with maleness, Minaj is also very creative. She’s not just one artist — she has various alter egos. She’s not just changing hip hop because she’s a female. She’s changing hip hop because she is unique and crafts lyrics that become massive parts of our society — no one can forget “Anaconda.” The influence of rappers like Nicki Minaj and Cardi B is undeniable, whether people want to recognize it or not. There’s no way to escape hearing lines from “Bodak Yellow,” the longest running number one song by a solo “female rapper,” on any popular radio station. Hopefully, the success of Cardi B and Minaj will make executives and producers change the demographics of rap. Perhaps then rappers like Princess Nokia, Noname and Sampa the Great will come to the forefront, actually get air time and replace the tired lyrics that objectify or criticize women. Corey Dulin can be reached at cydulin@umich.edu.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, November 1, 2017 — 5A
ARTISTS IN PROFILE
ALBUM REVIEW
DOGGYSTYLE RECORDS I want a Martha Stewart feature on the next one
Danny McBride stars in HBO’s “Vice Principals”
HBO
What happened, Snoop? Danny McBride & David We want the old Snoop back on ‘Make America Crip Again’ Gordon Green of ‘Vice Principals’ chat with us MIKE WATKINS For the Daily
Snoooooooop (cue “Drop It Like It’s Hot” background vocals)! Snoooooooop! Snoop? Snoop?! If you’re looking for Snoop Dogg, Snoop Doggy Dogg, The D-Odouble-G or any classic incarnation of the legendary G-Funk rapper who ignited the hip-hop world with his sly voice and swagger-oozing flow, you will not find him on Make America Crip Again. Instead, you’ll find an artist in the midst of an identity crisis, so torn between the worlds of old and new hip hop that he was forced to release a project full of contradictions, as undefined and insecure as 2017 Snoop himself. In general, Make America Crip Again is an EP meant to embrace and celebrate Black culture in the midst of racial struggle under controversial leadership. Lines like, “Them black boys is balling out, the whole block been eating,” and, “The world is yours nigga, so go and see that bitch,” certainly elicit a positive message meant to encourage and celebrate Black Americans, and Snoop’s motivation behind the album is certainly commendable. However, as an artistic project, the laudable characteristics of Make America Crip Again do not extend further than intention, and listeners are left with an outdated and insubstantial collection of songs under the name of one of rap’s former greats. Snoop’s Make America Crip Again lacks in two major areas: Message and music — two of the most basic categories regarding album quality. Given that the EP’s title is a play on President Trump’s fabled slogan, “Make America Great Again,” one would think the album tends towards the political; it does, but in ways that are at times contradictory. On the
album’s opener, “M.A.C.A.,” Snoop preaches about uniting Black communities across boundaries of color and creed with the lines, “Now just imagine if we stop shooting our own kind / I’m a Crip with no color lines, that mean I’m colorblind.” At face value, there is nothing wrong with these lines — an end to futile intraracial crime is an important emphasis in socially conscious hip hop. However, this message hits a wall when met with lines like, “Me and my homies gangbang on the field,” and, “Locked in, locked out / Talk shit, get socked out,” that only seem to emphasize and encourage the senseless violence and prideful disputes within Black communities that Snoop originally
Make America Crip Again Snoop Dogg Doggystyle Records derode. This contradiction, though sometimes common in rap, feels particularly odd here. His assertion of dominance and competition seems counterintuitive to Snoop’s moral of solidarity. Even the title, Make America Crip Again, lends itself to a contradiction with the rapper’s supposed message of unity — can Snoop preach togetherness with an album title built on the inherently violent bipolarity of gang violence and drug wars within urban centers? The album cover is also entirely blue, only further muddying the waters of Snoop’s claims. Though many argue that the prevalence of gangs in urban centers may provide a sense of community for Black Americans who need it most, the support of such inherently competitive organizations does not quite align with Snoop’s initial “drop your weapons”
message — even the most inclusive gangs still battle rival gangs; the rapper’s “colorblindness” is only superficially encouraged. If Snoop really wanted to profess solidarity within Black communities, perhaps ditching the Crip support in favor of a more unified and consistent theme would have been more effective. Musically, Make America Crip Again is forced and simply misses the mark. Snoop, who made headlines a few months ago for hilariously impersonating trap rappers and exposing the lack of originality in today’s rap surprisingly became exactly what he spoke out against. The music is just not suited for the Snoop we know and love; the straightforward, booming beats dilute the rapper’s charming tendency to sit back on the beat and swing his rhymes. Instead, listeners are jarred with far too simple and concise lines hidden behind slight autotune that lack wordplay and mirror the likes of Future and Playboi Carti. Snoop obviously pigeon-holed himself with his latest project, and in doing so he became something we never wanted him to be. With an unclear message and an unappealing music array, Make America Crip Again is a failed project, and Snoop is clearly struggling to keep up with the rapidly evolving hip hop world. Instead of grasping at straws to become the next Future, Snoop should take a step back and embrace his role as The D-Odouble-G, the funky and spunky Long Beach rapper who developed G-Funk and famously encouraged us to stay “laid back.” We’ve seen flashes of classic Snoop Doggy Dogg in recent years — just listen to his verse on “Institutionalized” by Kendrick Lamar and you’ll be sucked back into the height of West Coast rap in the ’90s. The sooner Snoop returns to this form with his solo projects, the better.
BOOK REVIEW
A Thanksgiving narrative finds new footing in gloom Feldman’s latest novel challenges its characters and the genre ROBERT MANSUETTI For the Daily
It would be quite an endeavor to find a piece of literature to which the descriptor “Great American Thanksgiving Novel” could be applied. Thanksgiving narratives are usually reserved for television or the silver screen; most often, they either boil down to tales of dysfunctional families and their bumbling misadventures (think “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”) or heartwarming reflections (more “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”) on the “true meaning” of a holiday where actually giving thanks is quickly overshadowed by overeating and then passing out while watching the annual Macy’s parade or Lions game. With his sophomore novel
“Start Without Me,” however, author Joshua Max Feldman aims to translate the classic Thanksgiving story to the page while simultaneously abandoning all of its conventional hallmarks. The unfamiliar lens through which “Start Without Me” explores the traditional Thanksgiving familial gathering is immediately made evident by its main characters. Adam is a recovering alcoholic whose bygone career as a bandmate and its accompanying rockstar lifestyle left him a shell of the vivacious musical prodigy he once was, and Marissa is an overworked flight attendant whose troubled marriage hangs by a very flimsy thread. On one cold Thanksgiving Day, Adam has already abandoned yet another family get-together that he was invited to after
EMILY BICE
Daily Arts Writer
“We like to design our projects to be able to be consumed in one hungover afternoon.” This is the opinion of Danny McBride, the creator and star of HBO’s “Vice Principals.” Now in its second and final season, the black comedy continues the saga of Neal Gamby (McBride), a man determined to become the Principal of North Jackson High School by whatever means necessary. He competes mercilessly with his rivals — namely, his more popular Co-Vice Principal Lee Russell. At the end of season one, Gamby is shot by a faceless villain in a mysterious mask. Season two picks up the pieces, and then tears them apart. It’s uncomfortable, outrageous and very funny. The Michigan Daily spoke with McBride and David Gordon Green, a frequent director on the show and an executive producer. McBride and Gordon Green shared insight into the process, the current season and how they got where they are today. This isn’t their first collaboration. The pair also worked on “Eastbound & Down,” a comedy about a failed probaseball player turned substitute gym teacher. Clearly, something about small-town high school administrators and teachers inspires both McBride and Gordon Green. “I was a substitute teacher for a little bit,” McBride said. “I always thought it was so fascinating how there’s one world going on with the students and then there’s a completely different world going on with the teachers and administrators … rarely did those two sides get a full understanding of the other one.” The duality of these worlds is very prevalent in “Vice Principals.” Choosing to set a story in a setting as specific as North Jackson High School and to center the plot line on two
run-in with Adam’s sister at a gas station, where Adam is directly convinced that no one sobering up and convincing in his family was ready for him them he’d changed, and to appear in their lives again. So, Marissa is distraught by the the pair decide to try their luck knowledge that she is pregnant with the Thanksgiving meal from an impetuous onethat Marissa has been dreading night stand with to attend. her high-school The following “Start Without extended scene boyfriend. In spite of all that, a chance at the Russells’ Me” meeting of these (Marissa’s two imperfect husband’s family) Joshua Max strangers at an progressively Feldman airport hotel ramps up in restaurant is the tension, yet William beginning of their feels somewhat unlikely odyssey contrived just Morrow across New for the sake October 17 England as they of discussing both attempt to complex subjects come to terms with like race, gender, their past and make sense of sexuality and class. Marissa’s the future that lies ahead of in-laws are quite a unique couple them. (a Black man and a Jewish Marissa’s attempt to woman firmly ensconced in chauffeur Adam back to his the upper class), but it appears family is quickly thrown off that Feldman only writes in course by a confrontational these diverse characters and
men “jockeying for the head of that world” is a tried and true storytelling device. McBride himself admits that it’s a “classic quest for the crown story.” For Neal Gamby and Lee Russell, the fight for Principal of North Jackson is akin to Macbeth’s bloodthirsty quest to be King. These characters, though ambitious in their own rights, are incredibly flawed protagonists. Neal Gamby, for example, is illtempered, short-sighted and dictatorial in nearly all aspects of his life. Yet somehow a successful two-season, 18-episode story has been created around Gamby and his cohorts. How? McBride feels like “it has to do a lot with being able to understand them. And understand them doesn’t mean making excuses for them, I think it means you can understand that someone is a terrible person and still not be endorsing them.” Grounding his fictional character in reality is easy, he explains, because, “that’s how people are in life anyways. It’s very easy to write people off or have people be defined by their worst attributes.” Creating a balance between a flawed and sympathetic protagonist is what they worked hardest on in the writing. Citing both Gamby and Russell, McBride notes, “we’re always trying to do is make these characters feel like they’re real, for better or for worse.” And with a show like “Vice Principals,” where for worse is taken hyper-literally, this is incredibly important. The ability to successfully pull off a character like Gamby is a sign of good writing and great collaboration. Evident in the interview is the healthy balance in McBride and Gordon Green’s working relationship — as collaborators, peers, friends. The pair, plus Jody Hill, who co-created both “Eastbound & Down” and “Vice Principals,” have been working together since first meeting in the dorms of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. McBride reminisced on what
inspired the partnership. “I saw David’s short film. He was a year ahead of me, and it was a first-year student film,” McBride said. “It was called, ‘Will You Lather Up My Roughhouse’ and it ended with two men … taking a bath together and singing. I saw it and I said, I want to make stuff with this guy.” They’ve made quite a few things together — usually comedies. Recently, however, Gordon Green and McBride have forayed into a new genre: horror. “The world is such a strange and evolving — often off-putting — place that I think if I was just trying to live in the melancholy side of my interests, it wouldn’t be healthy,” Gordon Green said. He counters, however, adding that he and Danny are “working on a horror film [“Halloween”] trying to step in a new direction. It’s important to always be evolving and trying something new.” The opportunity to experiment and try new genres is facilitated by a strong team of creative partners. What makes “Vice Principals” unique and likeable is the unified vision for the piece, and the cohesive understanding of each uniquely flawed character. The strength of the show comes through in the direction and execution of darkly funny plotlines. At the end of the day, however, it works because it’s created by a group of friends doing what inspires them, and working to inspire each other. Gordon Green emphasizes how special it is to work with close friends. “It’s cool to think of these relationships as family, as we’ve grown and learned and tried to challenge each other in lot of ways,” he said. “You always know with this group of collaborators that you could walk out on a limb … the world could reject you but your friends will always be there pushing you to be creative, and pushing you to enjoy what you do for a living.” Vice Principals currently airs on HBO. The series finale is November 12th, 2017.
their interactions with Marissa and Adam to shoehorn in dialogue that addresses the aforementioned contentious topics. Although the novel falters at points like those, it shines when it shifts its focus toward Adam and Marissa’s attempts to deal with questions of love and choice while they are both at rock bottom. The best scenes in “Start Without Me” highlight characters whose Thanksgivings are as glum as those of he two main characters: a disgruntled waitress whose mother just passed away, a husband who would rather spend his holiday camped out in front of Walmart, Marissa’s deadbeat mom and her new pothead boyfriend. Even the Russells barely act like a family, as they would rather find a random man on Craigslist to prepare their meal and have a photographer take faux candids instead of actually loving each other and
coming to terms with what it truly means to be a family. By concentrating on these flawed characters instead of the cheery and happy people that normally populate Thanksgiving stories, Feldman is able to nail themes of loneliness and depression by juxtaposing them with a holiday centered around togetherness. The dichotomy between two of the Thanksgiving meals consumed during the novel — an undercooked, pre-made, so-called feast and a cold bucket of KFC — are illustrative. People can either maintain an insecure façade while brushing their problems under the rug, or they can embrace who they really are and proudly display that person to others, especially their family members. While “Start Without Me” wraps up a little too quickly and neatly without fully developing its ideas, it is an introspective read that explores the struggles to know and to accept one’s true self.
Arts
Wednesday, November 1, 2017 86A ——Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Daily — — michigandaily.com The Michigan Daily
DAILY FILM COLUMN
FILM REVIEW
Everybody knew, everybody knows
Why does human decency only extend so far in Hollywood?
George Clooney and the Coen Brothers team up once again
PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Clooney does Coens and disappoints with a drag Lengthy and uneventful, ‘Suburbicon’ fails to be anything special SYDNEY COHEN Daily Arts Writer
Directed by George Clooney (“The Monuments Men”) and written by the Coen brothers (“Hail, Caesar!”), “Suburbicon” teases as a dark crime thriller that involves irrevocable actions and inevitable consequences, set in a 1950s suburban neighborhood. But despite its promising collection of Hollywood elites, “Suburbicon” is a messy, flat and directionless disappointment. The film opens with an introduction to the world of Suburbicon, a wholesome and white-washed Pleasantville saturated in a cheesy 1950s aesthetic. Tensions ensue when a Black family moves in, and the community is outraged by the breach of their WASP oasis. Flash to a crowd of white men foaming at the mouth at a town meeting, demanding the neighborhood upholds their right to maintain segregation. Right off the bat, the movie dives into racial tensions of the ’50s, white flight and the socioeconomic politics of integration. Just as quickly as they appear, racial dynamics take a back seat as the film spotlights the Lodge family, led by Matt Damon (“The Great Wall”) as the white-collar patriarch Gardner in perhaps his worst role to date. The family also includes Julianne Moore (“Kingsman: The Golden Circle”) in a dual role, playing both Gardner’s paraplegic wife Rose and her twin sister Margaret. Here we see another example of the hot trend of actors playing off themselves, done compellingly by Ewan McGregor in “Fargo” and
James Franco in “The Deuce.” Moore is an incredible actor who would have certainly been dynamic if able to really explore this dual role, but unfortunately, the movie immediately takes a drastic turn that negates this opportunity. The crime narrative evolves in the film’s crucial scene, which happens abruptly and jarringly, and is messy in its immediacy. The rest of the film is just as chaotic and confusing. As a crime movie, the progression of the plot would have been interesting had it been eerie and psychological. Instead, Moore’s turn as Margaret
‘Suburbicon’ Paramount Pictures Rave and Quality 16 comes off as superficially schizophrenic, or psychotic without the character depth the role demands. Damon is worse, playing the calculated patriarch as stiff and devoid of complexity. There is zero chemistry between him and Moore that makes their motivations wholly unbelievable. Maddeningly, Nicky understands the gravity of the film’s central conflict, but doesn’t do much about it; the film is riddled with plot holes that all involve Nicky being critically aware of his situation but somehow unable to voice his truth to anyone except the people that threaten him. “Suburbicon” does have a splash of the Coen brothers charm that flickers to create a shadow of
satire. A few scenes and lines of dialogue are kind of funny, smart and subversive, though fleeting. Near its end, the film gets so violent and bloody that is seems like a satirical crime thriller in the vein of Tarantino, though it never quite gets there. Oscar Isaac (“The Promise”) is fabulous as a cunning and slick insurance claim agent hot on the scent. Aesthetically, the film is strong, with some creative shots that make the movie visually interesting. The score by Alexandre Desplat (“Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets”) is also exciting and effective. The film’s weaknesses, though, by far outweigh its strengths. Tonally, the movie is all over the place, trying to be tumultuous and eerie but ending up flat. The acting is just as one-dimensional. Because it has no real protagonist, the film just floats in an empty dead space that makes connecting with the characters impossible. Random moments in the movie are devoted to showing the neighborhood’s crazed harassment of the Black family, but this racial subplot is completely superfluous and irrelevant to the larger narrative. Because they get no lines, the family members become tokens rather than characters. The movie isn’t really about racial dynamics, so the inclusion of this subplot is extremely problematic and superficial. After two endless hours, it’s hard to figure out what “Suburbicon” is actually about. Is it a social commentary on white flight and WASP racism? Is it a subversive satire of mob thrillers? Is it a cinematic success for Clooney and the Coen brothers? None of the above.
STYLE
Erdem knocks it out of the park with an H&M collab Luxury replaces cheapness in latest line with Swedish retailer TESS TOBIN
Daily Arts Writer
For a notoriously cheap brand, H&M spares no expense to promote its high fashion collaborations. This year for their partnership with British-based designer Erdem Moralıoğlu, which releases Nov. 2, they hired famed filmmaker Baz Luhrmann (“The Get Down”) to direct the promotional video. The short film is undeniably odd; it depicts a love triangle set in a mysterious country estate in shambles and includes dialogue so cringeworthy it makes you shudder with second hand-embarrassment. However, despite its adherence to weird tropes, the film is rhetorically effective: it makes you want to buy the clothes. The short is optically spectacular, every shot saturated with multi-hued flowers and attractive people dressed to the nines. The collection itself is impeccably done; the clothes
have a luxurious intensity to them, coupled with a fine attention to detail. There is a dichotomy among the pieces: half are defined by their crisp tailored lines, while the other half posses a more relaxed, flowey silhouette. All of the looks, however, are united by their sense of romanticism. While weird, the Luhrmann film does the collection justice, because — thanks to its modern take on Victorian style (lace, high collars, long sleeves) — if you were to find yourself in an old manor filled with flowers, looked after by an eccentric, Miss Havisham-esque lady, this collection is precisely the thing to wear. Of the collection, a few looks are outstanding, particularly the double-breasted gray wool womenswear suit and its floral brocade twin, as well as a silk pajama set, intended to be worn by both genders. But the question still remains: will this collaboration be as lucrative for the Swedish retail giant as the ones of
the past? Unlike Balmain, Alexander Wang or Versace, who all previously debuted collections with H&M, Erdem does not carry worldwide name recognition. Additionally, most of the pieces are priced at a point — about $200-299 — that a typical H&M shopper might balk at, a conscious decision on part of the designer. “I wanted to create something that was the opposite of fast fashion; I love the idea of creating pieces people would have forever,” he said in an interview with Fashionista.com. “Classic pieces that feel relevant in 10 years, 20 years.” Which is precisely what he did. This collaboration excels because it is more than just junky, cheap clothes smeared with the brand name. Yet despite the lack of ostentatious logos, anyone familiar with the designer will instantly know you’re wearing one of his pieces. This collection is indistinguishable from his main line, yet is about one-tenth of the cost.
Earlier this week, Kevin Spacey joined the growing list of “everybody knew” sexual abusers after Anthony Rapp came forward, detailing how the actor came on to him when he was only 14-years-old. In a particularly disgusting turn of events, Spacey spun the news into a coming out announcement. Like Weinstein earlier this month, Spacey’s digressions seem to have been expertly covered up by a complicit support system. People have dug up Family Guy jokes that hint as Spacey’s sexual misconduct, and Rosie O’Donnell tweeted at him: “we all knew about u.” I was surprised, and a little emboldened, by the swift and thorough takedown of Kevin Spacey. Hours after allegations surfaced, his Netflix show “House of Cards” was canceled. The LGBTQ community attacked his conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia. The TV Academy withdrew his International Emmy Founders Award. For an industry built of the bodies of women and children, Hollywood has proved itself to be a somewhat sentient beast in the last month. Spacey and Weinstein’s luciferian falls from grace might signal a sea change in the way the industry deals with one of it’s most rampant and complicated problems. This kind of instantaneous and all-reaching condemnation is similar to that of Ben Hopkins of queer punk band PWR BTTM. After allegations surfaced, the band was dropped from their record label, their music removed from streaming services and their upcoming tour canceled. It was exactly the kind of reaction
perpetrators of sexual violence deserve. It was, in the context of basic human decency, just and fair. The reaction didn’t, however, fit into the mold of how the music (or for that matter, film) community deals with sexual assault. There was little debate, overwhelming support for the victims and, for once, some kind of justice. But, of course, not all reactions are created equal. Woody Allen still has a new film coming out this month and another slated for next year. Johnny Depp has three movies coming out this year and
MADELEINE GAUDIN at least two for next year. After winning the Academy Award for Best Actor, Casey Affleck was in one of the years most highly regarded indies, “A Ghost Story” and has two more films slated for 2018. These men are also “everybody knew” cases, only with them the “everybody” includes us. We know. The people who cast and work with them know. Their agents, producers, directors and co-stars know. It doesn’t make sense that the same industry can react to these men in such different ways. What makes Weinstein or Spacey’s case different from Depp or Allen’s? Kevin Spacey, of course tried to
Classifieds
use his sexuality to undercut and distract from the allegations. His sexual misconduct, he seems to think, is only condemned because he’s gay. Not because he’s a gay man preying on underage boys. Maybe it’s the magnitude of Weinstein’s crimes that forced an unwilling public to come to terms with what it long had known: Hollywood (and really, America) has a problem with sexual assault. It’s much easier to ignore one woman than it is to ignore on hundred. Maybe it’s the status of his victims, who include Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, that forces us to acknowledge what he’s done. As a person with a body, and more specifically a woman who wants to work in a creative industry (don’t ask me which one, I don’t know yet), this all feels very immediate and confusing. Men have touched my body who I haven’t wanted to, they’ve yelled and me followed me, made me feel afraid of them. But I’ve never felt trapped by them or indebted to them. I’ve never been made to feel that my silence and my success were one in the same. So it’s a little (a tiny bit) heartening to see an industry that I (maybe) want to enter so swiftly and thoroughly the men that abuse their power and status to make less powerful people feel afraid and unsafe. But, I’m not completely convinced. Because there will be more cases that emerge where we sigh and say “everyone knew.” And there are still people that we know about, who we let succeed nonetheless. Hollywood is still a hypocritical, self-serving piece of garbage. But maybe, just maybe it’s getting better.
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RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
HELP WANTED
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Olympic swimmer Buster who played Buck Rogers 7 Naughty 10 Queequeg’s captain 14 “Yowzah!” 15 365 días 16 Place for a long winter’s nap 17 Restaurant review pricing symbol 19 __ bar 20 Physicians’ gp. 21 Cheese couleur 22 Like some bread 23 Out of __: not together 25 Grad’s memento 28 Wagering parlors: Abbr. 31 Printer problem 32 Key with no sharps or flats 35 Slatted window 40 British Columbia’s capital is on it 42 Where a tennis server’s doubles partner is usually positioned 43 Most cordial 44 Like this ans. 45 Diamond bag 46 Equal chance 51 Slide __ 55 Slangy negative 56 School whose a cappella group is the Whiffenpoofs 59 Albany is its cap. 60 Nabisco cracker 61 “Baby Got Back” rapper, and a hint to this puzzle’s circles 64 Extra 65 Boxing legend 66 Catty? 67 Cookie monster? 68 Center of Austria? 69 Fly to flee DOWN 1 Musical endings 2 Unlike most airline seating 3 Poe’s middle name 4 Statement amt.
5 Spoil the surprise 6 English nobleman 7 Olympic skater Oksana 8 Country in SW Afr. 9 Put on 10 Place to say “I do” 11 Port-au-Prince’s country 12 Singer whose fans are called Claymates 13 __ to light: reveal 18 “Just a few __” 22 Gradual absorption 24 Marine snail 26 Open a bit 27 City in central Kansas 29 Not the least bit challenging 30 Mimosa time 32 Glamorous Gardner 33 Yoga class need 34 Statement amt. 35 Hot tub water agitator 36 Stomach problem
37 RSVP convenience 38 Officeholders 39 July hrs. in Georgia 41 “Bates Motel” actress Farmiga 45 Shine 46 Terra __ 47 Self-evident principle 48 Opening words 49 Reduces to rubble
50 Four-time NBA All-Star __ Irving 52 Not illuminated 53 Rhone cathedral city 54 Lauder of cosmetics 57 Emotional boost 58 Former union members? 61 Posed (for) 62 __-de-France 63 Oktoberfest quaff
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
COCO, A CHAMPION HAVANA BROWN CAT, NEEDS A WINTER HOME IN MICHIGAN His owner will be down south and on extended trips from December to the begin ning of June. He is an affectionate, fully declawed, and inside only neutered male cat, 5 years old. His owner will supply food, kitty litter, etc. plus $300/month to the foster person or family. In the unlikely event that Coco needs medi‑ cal attention his owner will cover that expense. Full‑time adoption may be
FOR RENT xwordeditor@aol.com
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11/01/17
11/01/17
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statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | N OV E M B E R 1 , 2017
gender and
the gym
ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY KOFFSKY
2B
Wednesday, November 1, 2017 // The Statement
statement T H E M I CH I GA N DAI LY | N OV E M B E R 1 , 2017
Managaing Statement Editor: Lara Moehlman
Editor in Chief: Emma Kinery
Managing Editor: Rebecca Lerner
Deputy Editors: Yoshiko Iwai Brian Kuang
Design Staff: Michelle Phillips Hannah Myers Emily Hardie Erin Tolar Emily Koffsky
Copy Editors: Elizabeth Dokas Taylor Grandinetti
Photo Editor: Alexis Rankin
Copy That: Fact-checking alternative facts
T
his September, The Michigan Daily held its Bicentennial reunion weekend. Daily alumni from across the country were invited to return to our beloved newsroom and, among other things, mingle. As many of you know, “mingle” translates into “network” in hypercompetitive college speak. As one of my fellow managing editors so elegantly put it to me, fidgeting in her heels and with an air of resignation, “Come to happy hour if you want a job.” And that I did. I went, drank a little wine to make myself more pleasant and talked. And after conversation after conversation with Pulitzer winner after Pulitzer winner, something became very clear to me: I was making a mistake. According to everyone I met that night — extremely successful leaders in their fields, mind you — dedicating myself to copy editing was a waste of time. The job I’ve spent three nights a week at for months was not going to exist in a few years; copy editing, they informed me, was quickly becoming obsolete. Another notable quote from the evening: “Oh, don’t go into copy. Can’t your design
BY ELIZABETH DOKAS, COPY CHIEF editor show you InDesign or something?” I like my job. It’s demanding but rewarding, and I get paid to be nitpicky — something people, mostly ex-boyfriends, consider one of my greatest faults. I delete commas and I fact-check. I get to blithely inform writers that “people
to the goings-on in my prospective field, of course, but not really; when I saw that The New York Times was doing away with their copy desk entirely I was sad (and I pulled my subscription, half out of support for those striking and half out of spite) but I considered it
reported, and it’s the reason you’ve been seeing so many typos in online articles as of late. And while The Times’s corrections of misprinted facts may sometimes be funny, this mass disappearance of editors is representative of a much larger cultural phenomenon and one that has
ILLUSTRATION BY ERIN TOLAR
affected by the aftermath of the hurricane” could and should be shortened to “Hurricane María victims.” I like it, and I’m qualified for it. In considering post-grad options, a looming concern in my final year of college, I naturally gravitated toward copy editing. I thought it’d be a safe bet for an English/ Spanish major who didn’t want to teach. It was, to put it lightly, a rude awakening. I had been paying attention
an isolated incident. What I hadn’t realized until that night, a few months before my graduation, was that newspapers across the country are downsizingtheir desks significantly. This gem I found after falling down a massive research rabbit hole for this piece sums it up nicely. And people are noticing; “no other job classification has suffered so many losses as the news business downsizes,” CNN
become especially prevalent since the 2016 election. Facts just aren’t priority anymore. This is not a revolutionary statement; Donald Trump’s shaky relationship with documented occurrences has been well-reported. Post-truth was Oxford Dictionary’s 2016 word of the year. Alternative facts were not a one-time press gaffe but instead have become a cultural phenomenon. And
not to perpetuate the whole “fake news” nonsense, but this shift manifests itself in the media as the sacrifice of copy editors, the ones whose job it is to make sure the facts are true and correctly represented. With the omnipresence of the internet and its instantaneous refreshing, breaking a story before a competitor has become more important than ensuring its quality. Modern American media and culture have regressed to a place where fact-checking just isn’t important anymore, and it’s telling. As for me, I’ll be fine. I’m currently working on “diversifying,” which you all know is hyper-competitive college speak for “starting at square one,” but I have some ideas. Maybe I’ll finally learn how to use InDesign. What keeps me up at night isn’t my personal professional instabilities but the larger existential questions they bring up: Do veracity and accuracy hold any cultural weight anymore? Can I fit in a society that blatantly disregards all I’ve been conditioned to care about? How do we determine truth if there is little punishment for a lie? How do we make sense of nonsensical daily occurrences? How did we get here? Do we care?
Wednesday, November 1, 2017 // The Statement
3B
Soundtracking: Midterms BY MATT HARMON, DAILY STAFF REPORTER
M
idterms. The first sign that your semester is heading down the toilet real quick. It’s like if you were going down a slide but as you start your descent, you smack your head on the bar and just tumble down the slide, lying in a wood chip pile of lost GPA points and self-pity. Every time you say you’re going to duck, but every time you are sadly mistaken. This semester, I was optimistic. I was hopeful. Like a third grader stepping up to bat at their first little league game, picturing that ball sailing over the fences as the crowd cheers their victory lap, I thought success was bound to come my way. Good thing many strikeouts were in my future to bring me back down to Earth. I don’t know why, but in the first month of the semester, I kept saying I wanted the work to hit me already. I was uncomfortable with how little the workload was stressing me out. I wanted the semester to bodyslam me into submission like it inevitably always does. I can’t explain why this was the case but suffice it to say, I regret every sentence now. It’s 11:47 p.m. the night before one of my exams. After finishing some other assignments also due tomorrow, I sit staring at my laptop, prominently featuring a study guide file on Canvas. If you look into my eyes, the lights are on, but clearly nobody’s home. I’m more focused on the clock in the righthand corner of the screen. 11:48. 11:49. It takes every moral fiber in my body to not pull up some Vine compilations and ignore the PDF in front of me for a while. By the time my inner conflict between studying and the remnants of longdeceased Vine is resolved, 11:53 has rolled around. It’s time. “Sometime Around Midnight” — The Airborne Toxic Event Working my way through the guide, every concept from lecture on the study guide hits me with more and more force, and my confusion responds accordingly. The professor stressed about 28 times each lecture how this study guide is just a starting point and should not be the sole extent of my studying efforts. Seeing as though it is now 12:32 a.m., my eyelids are already staying closed for longer when I blink, and the exam is at noon tomorrow, this will be the extent of my work prior to the test. As I begin to stare off into space, I come to terms with the fact that this is my fault and my fault alone. No one came into my life and forced me to prioritize looking at the course catalog for hours on end instead of getting a head start on studying. No one offered me life everlasting to procrastinate this much. The only person I can directly blame for this entire situation is Matt Harmon and that dweeb is about to get a strongly worded letter after this hour and a half trainwreck tomorrow. Hours of studying roll by and suddenly it’s 4:00 a.m. and I’m still wearing a “#1 Grandma” sweater
and jeans. I check my beard to make sure I didn’t wind up spending twenty years staring at that study guide. I don’t want to look like Tom Hanks in “Castaway” at this point in my life. As I head to my room and my head hits my pillow, thoughts of this exam tomorrow fade out of my mind. No sense in stressing during my sleep. I set my alarm for 9 a.m. tomorrow to get a full breakfast and study a little more before noon. Everything fades and my worries melt away. “Forget About Life” — Alvvays The sun washes over my covers as my eyes open. That’s weird that I woke up before the alarm, seeing as though I was up pretty late. Oh well, I’m not one to argue with a good thing. I check my
ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY HARDIE
phone. 11:45 a.m. Legit end me now. I throw my blanket off as fast as I can, manage to pull my pants up without tripping over myself and eating the floor, grab my backpack with two #2 pencils for the scantron and a pen for the short answer section, and book it out the door with the speed of a taxi in a movie when the passenger yells “get me to the airport and step on it!” If any twoton vehicle wants to become really good friends with my body right now, I would gladly accept the offer. “Fast Car” — Tracy Chapman Sweating, shoulders aching from my backpack straps bouncing up and down and slamming into my back, I basically burst into the lecture hall at 11:58 a.m. People have been slowly trickling in, studying like the responsible students they are and here I am, a shitshow of a person who doesn’t even deserve a study guide. I owe my life to whoever created Michigan time. I grab a spot in a random row, my friends from the class spread out around the room, looking at each other and making expressions that say more than words. If I had to guess, I’d say most of them were thinking “What is this exam, and why is Matt
sweating so much?” For about a year and a half in high school, I walked around with a penny bouncing around in my shoe. My great-grandma always said if you find a penny heads up, put it in your shoe and good luck will come your way. Where’s my penny now? “Lucky Penny” — JD McPherson I fill out the scantron’s front page with my full name. Mathew doesn’t fit in the first name boxes, so I have to drop the W. For all intents and purposes, Matthe Harmon is about to bomb this bad boy. I feel bad for Matthe right now. I bubble in the key number and the rest of the sheet and open the exam. I didn’t know I was taking an exam in a foreign language today, but that’s rad. I know my professor said the study guide isn’t all that will be on the exam, but why did she have to be telling the truth? Some of these terms and questions I have never even seen before. Call me MF doomed. An hour and a half passes before you can say “I love Reggie the Campus Corgi” and about 75 percent of the class takes the full time like me. In the last five minutes, almost everyone succumbs to peer pressure and rises out of their seats to turn their tests in as a collective. Strength in numbers, I guess. We all look at each other, never having felt more united over a travesty like that before. “Crew” — GoldLink Flash forward to two weeks from that fateful day. I’m sitting in the dining hall on my phone when I get an email from my GSI. Subject line: Matt Exam Issue He had mentioned something a few days ago in section about how grades for the midterm aren’t out yet because some people mixed up their key numbers on the scantron so they had to recalculate some scores. Who in their right mind would mix up a 1 and a 2? How in hell could you even mess up that badly? In the wise words of Jeff Goldblum from “Jurassic Park,” “Life, uhhhhhh, finds a way.” Message: “Dear Matt, you mixed up your key numbers on your scantron. From the first grading of your multiple choice section, you got 21 out of 80 points.” “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad” — Prince I look up from my phone, my jaw almost smacking into the table below. What did I ever do to deserve this life? Who did I wrong? Did I accidentally upset some witch or force beyond my control that decided to make it their life duty to make sure Matt screws up in every possible way? It must have been Matthe that filled the scantron out wrong. Matt or Matthew would never do that but Matthe probably wants to see me fail. I keep reading. “We assumed this was a mix-up and regraded your midterm. This will not happen again if you mess up your scantron on the final. BTW, you did well on your midterm.” “Sweet” — Brockhampton. Matthe, you done good, kid.
4B
Wednesday, November 1, 2017 // The Statement
Wednesday, November 1, 2017 // The Statement
Gender and the Gym co ping with mas culin e s te re ot yp e s in f itn e s s
“
You need to be more aggressive.” I nodded quietly at my baseball coach and walked back to home plate, where I attempted to muster up all the energy in my lithe, eightyear-old body to hit the ball. My helmet felt too big on my head. My milk-white pants felt too tight on my legs. I already had two strikes, and I knew that I was a swing and a miss away from my third. It didn’t even matter at that point. I wasn’t “aggressive” enough to play baseball, and I couldn’t pretend to be. From an early age, most boys are expected to embody ideals of masculinity — strength and competitive attitudes — often in physical activities, like sports. Unfortunately, sports never really stuck with me. During soccer tournaments, I would try to entertain myself with an inner monologue. I’d even sit on the field when I sensed the ball wasn’t going to be kicked in my direction. Basketball was fun at times, but my short stature made it difficult to compete against my much
by Sam Rosenberg, taller, faster and more athletic teammates. I played tennis for several years, but I never felt skilled enough to commit to it. Of every sport I played, baseball was the most excruciatingly tedious. I would often either be sitting in the dugouts or standing in the outfield, both of which were paradoxically the best and loneliest parts of my Minor League career. It wasn’t until the end of eighth grade that I found a sport more suitable to my interests: cross-country running. I would spend each fall semester of high school running with my teammates in the dry San Fernando Valley heat, sweating and heaving until my calves grew sore. I felt incredible knowing that I was getting stronger and faster with every meet and practice, beating my personal records and starting to feel like “a man.” As co-captain of my team during my senior year, I was thrust into a position of leadership that encouraged the macho, aggressive mentality I eschewed when I was younger. I needed to use a “manly,” aggressive voice to prove I
could be a strong leader for my team. Before becoming captain, I never expected to be the best runner or athlete or version of a man, because maybe I was never meant to be. I ran because I liked it, because it was good exercise and because it was easy. But perhaps I also ran because I felt the need to show myself and others that I was capable of expressing my masculinity in the most socially acceptable way possible: through sports. For someone who doesn’t fully fit the dominant mold of masculinity, sports can be alienating. As I’ve grown older, I’ve found this alienation doesn’t escape the college campus either. ***** The Intramural Sports Building and the Central Campus Recreation Building are the largest gyms on campus, and they’re free and accessible to undergraduate and graduate students. Given the academic rigor and heavy workload of the college atmosphere, exercising at the gym makes for a great stress relief. It also
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Daily Arts Writer
helps that gyms have been statistically found to increase GPAs for college students. U.S. fitness centers reached a total membership of 57.25 million in 2016, with roughly 36,000 membership-based exercise facilities nationwide. Clearly, gyms are an important part of American and college life, and as such, they often reflect the same gender-based norms that dictate men lift weights and women run on the treadmill. Only 21 percent of women participate in strength training, according to a 2017 study from the National Center for Health Statistics. Many female students at the University of Michigan find the gym to be a rather intimidating place — especially the weight room. “As a girl, I know most people don’t expect me to do anything other than cardio,” LSA junior Ali Rosenblatt, said. Since Rosenblatt’s freshman year of high school, she has been consistently doing a mix of cardio and weight training. While she has become used to working out in the weight room, Rosenblatt still senses a stigma against women lifting weights at the gym, since weights are generally associated with “manliness.” “There’s usually a look of, ‘What’s she gonna pick up?’ ‘Does she actually know what she’s doing?’ ” she said. “People kind of look for you to mess up. I have a lot of friends who don’t want to go, whereas I see boys who clearly do not know what they’re doing, but they’re comfortable because it’s a ‘boys’ room.’ ” LSA junior Phoebe Hopp echoes Rosenblatt’s sentiment. “You never really feel like you’re just working out for yourself,” Hopp said. “Every time you do work out, it feels like there’s an audience.” At non-campus gyms, Hopp says she has been interrupted by guys trying to instruct her on how to use the equipment and sometimes even use that opportunity to ask for her number. “It makes your workout feel like it’s somehow inferior to the other guys that have been working out,” Hopp said. Building self-confidence can be tricky when appearance — looking physically strong — is at the forefront of gym culture. Even for people who have been working out since they were young, like Data Science junior Isha Kathuria trying to perfect one’s body can be an emotional burden. Since she got her first gym membership at age 13, Kathuria has grown accustomed to the gym atmosphere. “A lot of times, there weren’t very many people at the gym I went to, so I was able to
become very comfortable with myself being there,” Kathuria said. “When I went to bigger gyms, I was already comfortable with myself. I don’t really pay attention to what other people are doing and just focus on my own workout.” But it’s easy to become self-conscious of one’s body image given the influence of social media, where Instagram fitness models gain popularity for posting pictures and videos of their exhaustive workouts and toned physiques. Kathuria subscribes to fitness users like Whitney Simmons and Linn Lowes, both of whom have accumulated about one million Instagram followers. “When I haven’t worked out in a while and feel down on myself, I avoid going on Instagram Discover so I don’t have to see the videos,” Kathuria said. “You have your own body and you have your own goals, but they shouldn’t be based on what other people look like.” While watching these videos can negatively impact one’s self-esteem — Instagram, in particular, is a known detriment to mental health — Kathuria says fitness models can sometimes be helpful when explaining the strenuous nature of their process. For someone like Janae Marie Kroc, a wellknown bodybuilder from the Ann Arbor area who identifies as transgender and genderfluid, the idea of conforming to the societal standard of masculinity has never been easy. “As a muscular male, (working out) is largely seen as a positive thing,” Kroc said. “People respect it. When you’re dating, it’s a plus.” Originally from a small town in northern Michigan, Kroc has maintained a passion for exercise since childhood. By age 12, Kroc was working out consistently. She entered bodybuilding competitions during her high school years and continued lifting during her time in the Marine Corps. Currently, she trains five days a week, doing cardio every morning and following a bodybuilding diet of oatmeal, chicken and rice. “It’s always about trying to be better than yesterday,” Kroc said. But since beginning estrogen therapy, Kroc has noticed a few changes in the way people at the gym perceive her. “As a woman, it’s completely different. Immediately, it draws a lot of stares and negativity. People question your sexuality. Especially being transgender, you get pushback from your own community.” Though she now mostly trains at home, Kroc has added “post-estrogen PRs” to help broaden her workout goals to gain as much strength as possible during her transition. “It’s still about progress, it’s still about moving forward. But now, it’s basically a different set of rules and a different framework,” Kroc said. Despite the obstacles Janae faced in the midst of her transition, she found solace in the other women in the bodybuilding community. “They struggle with all the same things when their femininity is questioned in the pursuit of muscularity and strength,” Kroc said. ***** The weight room may not be as welcoming as it should be, but working out there isn’t the only way to stay in shape. In addition to her ventures to the CCRB, Rosenblatt partakes in
weekly yoga classes at the Center for Yoga on the corner of East William and State Streets, where she says some of her male friends also practice. “There’s a stigma against yoga as a more feminine workout,” Rosenblatt said. “But my (male) friends who go to yoga classes know it’s a tough workout.” Along with yoga, CrossFit provides a more inclusive alternative to the classic weight room. Mika LaVaque-Manty, a political science professor and the director of the LSA Honors Program, has been going to Joust Strength and Fitness for nine years, a CrossFit gym in Ann Arbor founded by three women. Though CrossFit is notable for its intense, grueling weightlifting, plyometrics, gymnastics and powerlifting exercises, it has taken steps toward narrowing the gender gap by applying a more group-centric approach, in which men and women are given the same amount of attention and agency in reaching their workout goals. “You’re suffering together, supporting one another, having fun together, and not competing against anyone else,” LaVaque-Manty said. “In so many sports, the things that we associate with masculinity and often with athletic excellence like strength aren’t the things that make somebody be better athletes.” He pointed out that CrossFit gyms generally don’t have mirrors. With greater gender and age variance, CrossFit gyms have provided a conscientious approach to fitness in regards to challenging and shifting preconceived notions of gender, body image and masculinity. ***** But the question still remains: How do we enforce more inclusivity at gyms here on campus, and what exactly would that look like? Mike Widen and Lisa Shea, the director and associate director of University Recreational Sports, take that issue into account when determining how to improve activities and spaces offered at the CCRB and the IM Building. When setting policies, Shea and Widen receive feedback from students, faculty, alumni and the Rec Sports advisory committee about what changes need to be made to on-campus gyms. “Students play a valuable role in the process because they see it from both perspectives,” Widen said. “They experience the spaces themselves, but they also understand the logistics of what makes a place like the gym the environment that it is. Whatever the decisions we make, we want to make sure that recreational sports are inclusive to all students, regardless of gender.” Since the IM building reopened last school year after renovations, the space has made several significant changes regarding inclusivity, such as the addition of gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms. “It’s about the environment and physical structures of making our space feel welcome,” Shea said. In addition to the gender-inclusive spaces, Shea added that incorporating a tubular design, softer colors, a wider entrance space, greater visibility and lighter-weight strength and cardio equipment helped implement a more comfortable and inviting atmosphere at the IM building. The rec sports’ Group X program also gives students a more individualized cur-
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ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
riculum through small group training in yoga, mindfulness, meditation and movement. Widen and Shea both hope to apply similar gender-inclusive improvements to the CCRB, which is slated for renovation in 2021, following the completion of the North Campus Recreation Building’s renovation in fall 2018 and the restoration of the Michigan Union. While gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms are creating progress in inclusivity at the IM building, Kroc believes education is a key solution to combating hyper-masculine mentality at the gym, to make it a safer space for women and gender nonconforming people. “Being open helps a lot,” Kroc said. “For me, being as big and muscular as I am, it’s kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it makes it very difficult for me to pass. Even when people read me as a female bodybuilder, I’m often bigger than anybody they’ve seen before. My muscularity also offers me a small measure of protection because people are less likely to be aggressive with me.” Men at the gym aren’t just perpetuating a hyper-masculine mentality; they’re affected by it as well. A 2017 study on masculinity from the Journal of American College Health
found that college-aged men are under significant social pressure to conform to masculine gender roles. Trying to embody these hyper-masculine traits has also been linked to mental health issues, such as depression and substance abuse, and less favorable attitudes toward getting psychological help, according to a 2016 study from the American Psychological Association. Usually when I go to the gym, I’ll first do 15 minutes of running on the treadmill, followed by exercise machines, free weights and pull-ups. Whether it’s at the CCRB or the IM Building, I am constantly aware of my skinny frame in comparison to the much buffer men standing near me. Through the mirror, I can feel the weight of others’ stares on me, even as I attempt to focus on myself and my physical growth. But seeing how these men have perfected themselves is a hard thing to come for someone who doesn’t participate in a sport anymore. But going to the gym shouldn’t be about acting the most “aggressive” or looking the most “masculine.” It should be about limproving our physical health, appreciating our vulnerability, understanding our limitations and, ultimately, finding our own inner strength.
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Wednesday, November 1, 2017 // The Statement
Empath in the Wild: When I Fight Back by Regan Detwiler, Columnist Trigger warning: This article mentions sexual harassment and gender-based violence. ’ve never been very enthusiastic about Michigan football, but it’s my senior year, and I decided the Saturday of the Michigan State night game that I would go out with my roommates and give tailgating one last go before I graduated. On Saturday afternoon, I was ready to go, but as I tied my shoes to leave, something inside me knew I’d end up lamenting later that I’d spent several hours on this. I should have trusted my gut: That Saturday a guy groped me at The Pit, my roommate and I witnessed intimate partner violence on the street and we were verbally harassed by two men a block away from our house with a level of graphic detail and disregard for basic human rights that I have never personally experienced before. My last column was about empathizing with people who promote violence without condoning their behaviors, and where empathy and justice butt against one another. I used the example of white supremacists and neo-Nazis who protested in Charlottesville, saying I can empathize with their emotions of, say, displacement, while still vehemently opposing their actions. I’m white, so to a certain extent, I identify that my call for all people, regardless of their race, to empathize with white supremacists and neo-Nazis may reveal a white-privilegeinduced bias. Racism is a detriment to everyone, but it affects people of color much more directly than it affects me. One could say it’s easier for me to make this call for empathy because I’m white. Although I realize racial oppression is different from gender oppression, I outline my experiences on game day to see if I, myself, could empathize with people who act violently toward me directly, based on my gender as a woman. I won’t pretend to know exactly what goes through the minds of individuals who perpetrate sexual harassment and gender-based violence, but I can certainly speculate, knowing that anyone’s actions are a result of their inner thoughts and emotions. In addition, the perspective I’ve gained, living for 22 years as a woman in the U.S. can inform my speculation:
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From being catcalled while going on training runs for cross country in high school to encountering sexism in intimate relationships with men, I’ve been subject to both milder and more extreme sexual harassment and misogyny. I recognize men aren’t always the offenders in these situations, but they most often have been in my experience. When the guy at the Pit groped me, I yelled at him not to. When my roommate and I witnessed a girl being physically and verbally attacked by her boyfriend, we offered her help. When my roommate and I were verbally harassed, I yelled at him (with plenty of expletives). What’s frustrating is that yelling at people with such aggression and anger is not in my character. These instances of gender discrimination and violence force me into these kinds of behaviors because it feels like the only thing I can do in response. In a perfect world, I could try to speak out, take to activism, and educate people about sexual harassment, sexual violence and other related topics. People would listen, learn and adjust
This warrants fighting back. When one group makes nonviolent calls to change and the other in power refuse to listen, choosing instead to continue oppressing those who call for change, I can engage in empathy but also violence—whether it’s in the form of yelling, punching a guy in the face, or getting my friends to yell at him with me. Women and LGBTQ activists have also been doing this for centuries: Take Carrie Nation, for example, who was part of the feminist temperance movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The movement sought to stop men from drinking because drinking was associated with increased instances of domestic abuse. Nation was (and, among some, still is) famous for leading all-women raids into bars and attacking the bar fixtures and stock with a hatchet. Thankfully, These kinds of encounters are unusual for me. They stick out in a generally peaceful existence. But I know other people — specifically people of color and people who are genderqueer — experience oppression ranging in levels of violence every day, ILLUSTRATION BY HANNAH MYERS and can feel alienated on campus and in classrooms, which are spaces their actions accordingly. But activist and educational efforts they’re supposed to feel comfortable. have been going on for a long time, and The existence of this oppression is clear are going on right now at the University. from frequent and recent protests and The Take Back the Night protest happens demonstrations, especially in the case of every year; bulletin boards in dorms and race relations on campus. University halls are covered with f lyers When people in power deliberately and for events such as the Vagina Monologues. continuously ignore nonviolent calls for What’s more, women’s calls for equal equality, what’s the next step? Refusing treatment are all over the mainstream nonviolent calls provokes people to media. Hillary Clinton is a controversial become violent, turning a dialogue into a figure, but she brings even basics of fight. feminism into a general public. Further, Even if violence can be justified in assault allegations against public figures fights for equality, what my fellow such as Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein advocates for human rights must never also bring issues of gender equality to forget is that the other side is made up of glaring attention. individuals with valid emotions. Ignoring The only reason I can imagine for anyone’s emotions is dehumanizing, and someone to ignore calls for equality is it’s easy to act violently against someone because they feel threatened. If they who is construed as being less than ignore nonviolent calls, they can continue human. In this way, dehumanizing people to reap the benefits of their privilege as serves to further violence, which I believe men (in this case, white). Maybe they’re should be a last resort in any fight for scared that if they begin learning more equality, whether it’s for my own equal about women’s experiences, the faint call treatment or for that of others. Empathy of justice may grow louder and force them and violence can coexist, but it’s certainly not ideal. to renounce some of their power.
Wednesday, November 1, 2017 // The Statement
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Personal Statement: Scio Church Road
by Kaela Theut, Daily Staff Reporter
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rms pumping vigorously in an attempt to match the cadence of my legs, I begin my ascent — my f lushed cheeks a stark contrast against the dismal October sky of southeast Michigan. I am no stranger to this momentous hill, leading up toward Scio Church Road from Pioneer High School, or this route, as I have run it over 100 times since the fall of my sophomore year. I have now reached the point where I can run that 6-mile loop with my eyes closed, pulled along by some imaginary cord keeping me tethered to the earth beneath my rapidly moving feet. My mind is occupied, but not with disheartening thoughts — rather the reassuring rhythm of my breath leaving my chest, the startling beauty of sunlight filtering through concrete, and the remnants of some song working its way through my conscious. I focus so intently upon the way my stride hits the pavement, and the burning in my lungs, that I barely notice the cars whizzing by or the fatigue settling into my aching legs. For once, I am not feverishly questioning whether I turned the stove off before leaving the house. So many people ask why I choose to run the same route every single day, especially in a city replete with verdant parks, forest trails and bike paths. To truly understand my self-imposed monotony is to grasp the thought patterns of an anxious mind — this seemingly fanatical routine did not spring from nothingness. Rather, it developed from the multitude of attempts I made to deal with my anxiety while maintaining some semblance of normalcy. I tried speaking with a therapist, yet struggled with being completely vulnerable in sharing the extent of my anxieties, so this only lasted a few weeks. However, determined to quiet the thoughts clouding my brain, I continued to run. Even today, I am still running. Some of my family members have dealt with mental health struggles — most commonly, obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalized anxiety — throughout their lives. For so long, I harbored the quiet thought that I had simply “missed” the anxiety gene, choosing to completely negate my immobilizing panic surrounding cross-country races, or intense fear of public transportation. By ignoring my anxiety, and failing to acknowledge it for what it was, I prevented myself from learning how to truly handle the obsessive thoughts invading my headspace. I was confronted with the full effects of this avoidance mindset last fall when a combination of anxiety and depression
ILLUSTRATION BY HANNAH MYERS left me vulnerable and frightened in the face of day-to-day life — panic attacks were not uncommon. For someone who has always prided herself on self-sufficiency and independence, I felt overwhelmed and unable to fully express the thoughts churning inside my head. I ran, but I felt so heavy. I knew something was innately not right when I began crying in the midst of what should have been an easy 3 miles from a pressing feeling that my chest was folding in on itself — trying to wring me out from the inside. The tears, mixed with sweat, stung my eyes. However, like the 40 million adults throughout the United States dealing with generalized anxiety, I could not dwell in darkness forever. After taking medication for a number of months, coupled with an overwhelming determination to not let my life be consumed by such irrational thoughts, I slowly started to view life as something to be celebrated rather than feared. During this time, I began to run this same route every day, finding quiet solace in not having to plan or actively anticipate new twists and turns in my path. For
45 minutes a day, I can simply just exist, buoyed by adrenaline and a welcome rush of endorphins, rather than nervously anticipating whatever responsibility lies ahead. My mind must work constantly to prevent itself from being completely consumed by fear and dread, and sometimes I grow too weary of this struggle to continually battle my thoughts. Every single day, I obsessively worry that somebody I know is going to die — potentially even myself — due to some dire catastrophe that seems incredibly implausible to any other normal brain except my own. The thought is always there, as persistent and vital as any other basic life function. I worry about other things too, like whether my friends will spontaneously decide to dislike me, or if I will say something that could be misconstrued as strange in any conversation. I used to enjoy public speaking, but now my voice always trembles — no matter the size of the crowd. Yet, despite the internal noise, I have learned to appreciate my brain for what it is — an amalgamation of infinite complexities capable of producing beautiful, rather than dismal, thoughts. Because of my anxiety, I am more perceptive of the world around me and sensitive to emotional
nuances that sometimes go unnoticed. Only after periods of darkness, when I feel a constant tightness in my chest and dark lens obstructing my vision, do the mundanities of life appear so much more luminous. More so than any medication or conversation with a therapist, I will always have running to quiet my reeling mind. From putting on my well-worn running shoes to tightening my ponytail, the consistency of this routine provides me with a sense of comfort and purpose unmatched by any other activity in my life. Sometimes I glide along with relative ease, while other days, I feel as if my legs are being anchored to the ground by some sort of perverse gravitational pull. But regardless of the physical condition of my body, my cherished route allows me to breathe fully, unburdened by anxiety, for the first time that day. And as I crest the hill, for a single moment, no matter how f leeting it may be, my once chaos-filled brain is replete with a quiet serenity. And from there, I move forward into the uncertain future the only way I know how — putting one foot in from of the other, my eyes scanning the horizon, until I reach home.
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Wednesday, November 1, 2017 // The Statement
V I S UA L STAT E M E NT
HALLOWEEN WITH THE DINOSAURS Photos by Max Kuang When I was in elementary school, my parents used to take me and my sisters trick or treating at the University’s Museum of Natural History. My mom would dress us up in some last-minute costume so we could hang out with dinosaurs the Sunday before Halloween. So when the Natural History Museum announced it was closing this December and moving to the new Biological Sciences building, I knew I had just one last chance to experience Halloween in the Hall of Evolution. As I gazed upon the line of trick-or-treaters at the museum last Sunday, all those memories of me in costume came back.
Families enjoy the Hall of Evolution.
Ypsilanti resident Aya Ibarishi makes a craft at the Family Halloween Party at the Natural History Museum.
Ann Arbor resident Hodaka Suzuki.
Natural History Staff member Cameron Trinh holds a python for children at the Family Halloween Party at the Natural History Museum.
Ann Arbor residents Elizabeth and Amia Bower.
Ann Arbor residents Tao and Henry Peng.
South Bend resident Julia Mannor points at a rabbit.