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Daily investigation finds allegations of microaggressions against comics professor Current and former students of the School of Art & Design share their experiences with Prof. Phoebe Gloeckner
CALLIE TEITELBAUM Daily Staff Reporter
In an interview with The Daily, a former student in the School of Art & Design recalled her decision to take a class with Phoebe Gloeckner, Art & Design Professor and graphic novelist. This student requested anonymity, citing a fear of professional repercussions. In this article, they will be referred to as Leila. “I always wanted to take a class with her,” Leila said. “She’s so prestigious. She has a movie. She’s a best selling author … so that was really interesting to me.” In the fall of 2020, Leila registered for Gloeckner’s course, ArtDes 366: Graphic Narratives. On Oct. 2, a month into the course, Leila and several other students in the class reported Gloeckner to Art & Design School administrators for dismissing students’ concerns about repeatedly showing “racist caricatures in her curriculum” that lacked educational context. This complaint was obtained by The Daily. List of concerns sent to Art & Design administrators. Obtained by The Daily. A Michigan Daily investigation found numerous previously undisclosed allegations against Gloeckner of perpetuating racial and gender-based microaggressions. The investigation also found that both Art & Design administrators and the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) were repeatedly made aware of these allegations between the fall of 2020 and winter of 2021. Of the 679 Art & Design students enrolled in the winter 2022 semester, 58% are white, 12% are Asian, 5% are Black, 7% are Hispanic and 0.3% are Native American, according to the U-M Office of the Registrar.
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The investigation also uncovered a formal complaint sent to U-M administrators by an artist who worked with Gloeckner at an outside program, the Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA), in the fall of 2021. It is unclear what actions administrators took to address these concerns. This investigation is based on interviews with 12 current and former students of Gloeckner, including three residents who worked with Gloeckner at ACA, along with a review of emails, letters of complaint and other documents pertaining to Gloeckner’s classroom conduct. In an email to The Daily, Gloeckner pointed to the University’s response to the allegations against her. “(The complaints) were already examined by U-M, and the university decided to close the matter over a year Follow The Daily on Instagram, @michigandaily
and half ago,” Gloeckner wrote. “The other allegation from (ACA) is simply outrageous, and absolutely untrue.” Brad Smith, Art & Design associate dean of academic programs, commented on the University’s response to the allegations against Gloeckner in an email to The Daily. “The administration of the Stamps School of Art & Design responded to the concerns shared by students in 2020 and 2021 through established processes regarding such issues,” Smith wrote. “As this is a personnel matter, university policy limits the information we are able to share.” “The harm caused deserves to be properly addressed” Gloeckner has been a professor at the University of Michigan since 2004. She received tenure as an Art & Design associate professor in
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2010. Gloeckner is best known for her graphic novel, “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,” which was adapted into a film in 2015. The film received critical recognition at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. According to students in the Art & Design School, Gloeckner is the only professor who specifically teaches comics and graphic novels. An Art & Design faculty member, who requested anonymity for fear of professional retaliation, told The Daily they recalled three separate instances in which students came to them with concerns over Gloeckner’s classroom conduct. These students expressed concern over Gloeckner’s alleged presentation of graphic and racially insensitive material in class. Leila said concern surrounding Gloeckner’s curriculum began on
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the first day of ArtDes 336 in the fall of 2020. Gloeckner assigned students to replicate a cartoon by illustrator Robert Crumb. In interviews with The Daily, multiple students expressed discomfort with the image, which portrayed a woman leaning against a window. One student said they felt the comic was “misogynistic.” Crumb is known for his controversial work and role in the Underground Comix movement. Leila said that in class the next day, students expressed their discomfort with the material to Gloeckner. Gloeckner assigned students to watch a documentary on Crumb in response to student concerns. In interviews with The Daily, six students said the documentary involved graphic discussions of rape and misogynistic depictions of women. These students allege that Gloeckner did not provide a content or trigger warning before assigning the documentary. Leila said she felt like the documentary assignment was a punishment for students not agreeing with class material. “I don’t care if she likes Robert Crumb,” Leila said. “It was more the fact that (she) was like, ‘You guys must like it, and if you don’t like it, there’s going to be consequences.’ And there were consequences.” A former Art & Design student who took ArtDes 336 with Leila corroborated Leila’s account. This student also requested anonymity, citing a fear of professional repercussions. In this article, the student will be referred to as Spencer. Spencer said that Gloeckner presented cartoons with racist and misogynistic themes in class. Spencer felt personally offended by these materials.
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NEWS................... 2 ARTS...................3 STATEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . 4
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News
2 — Wednesday, June 29, 2022
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS BRIEFS
UMich updates COVID-19 policies for 2022-2023 academic term How the University will look in the fall concerning COVID-19 protocols.
SEJAL PATIL
Summer News Editor
The University of Michigan updated the COVID-19 policies for the 2022-2023 academic term. Robert Ernst, associate vice president of student life, and Preeti Malani, U-M Chief Health Officer, announced the update in an email to the U-M community Tuesday. The plans for the Dearborn and Flint campuses will be shared at a later date. “The guidance from the Campus Health Response Committee (CHRC) for the Ann Arbor campus for fall is based on current conditions, and may change depending upon the evolution of the pandemic or emerging guidance from the public health community,” the email reads. Recommendations for masking in
most indoor spaces and instructional spaces will be based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 community level for Washtenaw county. The COVID19 community level for Washtenaw county is “Medium,” and it is recommended masking decisions be based on an individual’s personal risk. The email said students should continue to stay home if they experience any symptoms, or feel sick. “Individuals are expected to stay home if they are sick with support from their peers, supervisors and instructors,” the email reads. “This helps reduce the likelihood of spreading a range of infections including COVID-19, influenza and other illnesses.” Ernst and Malani also wrote that they are planning for a vibrant
campus experience due to the high vaccination rate of the campus community. “Our local data show that the majority of COVID-19 infections among our community this past academic year presented with either mild symptoms or no symptoms at all,” the email reads. “This is consistent with the growing evidence that vaccination offers excellent protection against severe illness.” The email also announced that isolation housing will remain available and will be prioritized for use by students with a residence hall contract. All U-M faculty, staff and students are required to update their vaccinations by completing their primary COVID-19 vaccination series and one booster, with limited exemptions as outlined in the U-M
Vaccination Policy. The deadline for incoming students to submit their vaccination information prior to the fall term is July 15. The email also said that testing for asymptomatic COVID-19 will remain available through the Community Sampling and Tracking Program for those who are required to test weekly or who are interested in testing. Those who are not up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations are required to test weekly. Ernst and Malani also wrote that a new epidemiology and infection prevention unit is currently being established to oversee the core infectious disease response-related functions previously handled by the CHRC. More details about this new unit are included in the University Record.
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Nearly 2,000 people gather for vigil after the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
People gather to talk about abortion access and what the Supreme Court ruling means for Michigan Summer Managing News Editor
Trigger warning: this article contains mentions of sexual assault. An estimated 2,000 people gathered on the Diag on Friday to ‘share space’ and discuss action after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade (1973). The Supreme Court voted 6-3 in favor of a Mississippi ban on
Health and an organizer of the event — asking the crowd if they felt hurt, exhausted and angry. Rheingans then led everyone in a “deliberate scream”, and the Diag was momentarily filled with voices. The ruling came after Politico released a leaked draft opinion suggesting that the Supreme Court would overrule Roe v. Wade last month. This leaked draft opinion sparked nationwide protests and was condemned by both advocates of abortion rights and Michigan physicians. In Michigan, a preliminary injunction issued in May on a 1931 ban on all abortions except those that are necessary to save a person’s life will temporarily maintain access to abortions in the state. The injunction currently halts the ban from coming into effect, but it is only temporary, with conservative activists having filed a request last month to have the injunction lifted. In response, a ballot initiative called the Reproductive Freedom for All campaign currently exists in Michigan that would add the right to an abortion to Michigan’s JULIANNE YOON/Daily constitution if passed.
abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overruling Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). The decision leaves the right to abortion access to the states, and it is expected that almost half of states will establish a ban on abortions as a result. The vigil began with Carrie Rheingans — an instructor at the School of Social Work, a member of the Washtenaw County Board of
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Bonsitu Kitaba, Deputy Legal Director at the ACLU of Michigan and an organizer of the vigil, spoke about this ballot initiative to the crowd, claiming that it not only protects access to abortion but also protects a wide range of reproductive healthcare services. “The Reproductive Freedom for All campaign and ballot initiative is a constitutional amendment that protects every individual’s right to reproductive freedom,” Kitaba said. “And that means your right to make and effectuate decisions related to your pregnancy, whether that be contraception, sterilization, prenatal care, postnatal care, miscarriage management, infertility and abortion care.” Katie Scott, County Commissioner for District 9 and an organizer of the vigil, addressed the crowd and urged them to act beyond the ballot and donate to the Midwest Access Coalition, an organization that raises funds to help women with travel costs and other costs associated with getting an abortion.
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Arts
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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 — 3
Climate change needs poetry, not ‘Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers apathy — so read ‘Habitat Threshold’ Dynasty’ is Hollywood entertainment at its finest — just don’t call it a true story EMILIA FERRANTE Senior Arts Editor
KAYA GINSKY In his 2020 poetry collection “Habitat Threshold,” Craig Santos Perez wields his poetry as a way to critique climate change and the societal ills — racism, bigotry, capitalism and corporate greed, among others — that contribute to it. He doesn’t shy away from describing scenes that result from climate change, like refugees, rising sea levels and pollution. He confronts his struggles with raising his daughter in an environmentally fraught world and with his own complicity in the systems that contribute to climate change. This book is not for the faint of heart — but neither is contemplating the existential threat of climate change. And just like awareness of the climate crisis is necessary, so too is reading this collection. Poetry won’t remove microplastics from the ocean or reverse the melting of glaciers, but Perez demonstrates that it can make you feel something genuine in a seemingly doomed world. Perez experiments with form through necropastorals, haikus, sonnets and prose poetry. Perhaps most notably, he employs “mimic poetry” (also known as “after poems”), which use the form of a pre-existing poem to create a new work that comments on new topics. Perez draws on well-known authors and their famous works, including Allen Ginsberg’s “America” and Maggie
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Smith’s “Good Bones,” and alters them to speak to ecological themes. In a wink and nod to the overtly ecopoetic slant of his poetry, instead of writing “after Wallace Stevens,” for example, under his new poem’s title in reference to the original “Thirteen Ways,” he writes “recycling Wallace Stevens.” By retaining original, often familiar poetry formatting (he also “recycles” Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” and Dr. Seuss’s “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish”) and juxtaposing it with jarring images of climate disaster, Perez forces the reader out of complicity and into a contemplation of the way our environment affects every aspect of our lives — even those aspects that feel so routine. William Carlos Williams’s original “This Is Just To Say” is a sweet, intimate and often-parodied poem reminiscent of a note left on a kitchen table in which the speaker is apologizing to an unknown other for eating their plums.
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The word “showtime” evokes two images: first, a rising curtain, and second, a 12-year era (1979-1991) of entertaining Los Angeles Lakers basketball. “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” is a gritty HBO sports drama with Hollywood appeal beyond the Lakers fan base. Based on Jeff Pearlman’s nonfiction book, “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s,” “Winning Time” is a fictionalization of sports’ biggest stars with a cast of excellent pros and rookies. Just remember — it’s all for show. Andrew D. Bernstein, the showtime-era team photographer, said in a phone interview with The Michigan Daily that the Forum arena spotlight lighting and stunning Lakers play made games feel “kind of like a stage show.” “I really felt my job was to kind of show people what was going on behind the curtain,” Bernstein
said. “Winning Time” captures the audience just as Bernstein did: by providing a look behind the glittery curtain (in color film). Unlike Bernstein’s photographs, however, the show’s “inside look” is fictional. In the late 1970s, the Lakers had an aversion to playoff basketball, and the NBA was one of the least popular leagues in America. The team needed the shakeup of new ownership from late sports and real estate magnate, Jerry Buss. John C. Reilly (“Step Brothers”) portrays the playboy with nearly frightening sleaziness, making him equally loveable and hateable. The actor hits every emotion as he battles his never-ending money- and sexhungry dissatisfaction. The real Buss was a different man, a more soft-spoken womanizer with a passionate love for basketball. When Buss drafts the scrappy young Earvin (Magic) Johnson, played by Muskegon Michigan’s Quincy Isaiah, the team climbs to the top. Isaiah, much like Magic himself, is a
breakout star from Michigan and is guaranteed a bright future in Hollywood. Magic has not watched Isaiah’s portrayal but said that “nothing can duplicate” showtime basketball. “Winning Time” producers prove that Magic’s words are true, for better or worse — the show is not a duplication, but a Hollywood drama. Though the players are fictionalized, their on-screen chemistry or friction is palpable and true-to-life. Kareem Abdul Jabar (debut star Solomon Hughes) is a quiet team leader. He clashes with the smiling, irresistible Magic. They contrast the fearless Spencer Haywood (Wood Harris, “Remember the Titans”) who struggles with ongoing addiction. And much drama surrounds Norm Nixon (DeVaughn Nixon, Norm’s real son), the first challenge to Magic’s (and Isaiah’s) charisma. The show has no stunt doubles, and each actor trained to achieve their character’s signature style of play.
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Drake leaves his comfort zone on ‘Honestly, Nevermind,’ but maybe he shouldn’t have JACK MOESER Daily Arts Writer
For over half a decade, Drake has been the poster child for commercial rap success at any cost, particularly creativity. There’s no denying his ear for beats, steady flow or high-end production, but over the years, he’s seemingly refused to take risks to expand his musical ability, all while his lyrical ability has taken a steep nosedive into unbearable corniness. To his credit, he’s still been able to consistently put out mostly decent rap music, which isn’t a trivial accomplishment, but it feels like Drake has been long overdue for a real statement record that can breathe life back into his career. Honestly, Nevermind is as bold of a statement as anybody could have hoped for from Drake, as he mostly forgoes his typical hip-hop beats in favor of a new house music style. In theory, house music should be a great fit for Drake, given his shortcomings as a lyricist.
Drake even has past success in this genre: His 2017 song “Passionfruit” is a great, danceable hip-hop song that shows the full potential of dance/rap genre fusion. However, Honestly, Nevermind shows that Drake lacks a fundamental understanding of the house music genre deep enough to justify an entire album of it and isn’t willing to commit and take the necessary step of fully overhauling his musical style. One of the key techniques used by great house musicians, like Daft Punk, DJ Falcon and Armand Van Helden, to turn basic, repetitive ideas into lengthy yet compelling songs is full usage of the sound frequency spectrum: As soon as an idea gets stale, they can filter out the low or high sounds to give the song a fresh, new feel. On “Passionfruit,” Drake did an exceptional job at creating a rich, sonic texture that was engaging while supporting his tastefully lowkey lyrics and vocal delivery. But on Honestly, Nevermind, nearly all of the instrumentals are heavily washed-out, occupying the low end of the frequency
spectrum to accommodate Drake’s higher-pitched, autotuned vocals. On the song “Massive,” the producers attempt a standard drop-out about four minutes in, but the instrumental is already so washed-out that the effect of filtering out the high-pitched sound is lost. Frustratingly, the song also briefly features a vibrant and energetic piano part that teases the potential of this album if it had a more consistently full sound. Because Drake underutilizes common house production techniques, he instead has to rely on his lyrical ability to keep his songs interesting for the listener, which generally does not go over well. On nearly every song on the album, Drake’s autotuned voice awkwardly rambles vague and uninteresting lyrics over his simple dance beats. Lyrically, Drake is at his best when he’s doing the least: On songs like “Overnight” and “A Keeper,” Drake’s repetition of short phrases fits the simplistic house instrumentals well. But on songs like “Texts Go Green” and “Massive,” the more complicated lyrics
are incongruous with the simple beats that accompany them. “Falling Back” is a good example of both types of Drake’s lyricism: In the opening verse, it feels like Drake is just sayingw words without intent (“How do I, how do I feel? How do I feel?”), whereas Drake’s repetition of just one phrase in the chorus (“Falling back on me”) communicates Drake’s message
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better and fits with the instrumental. Throughout the album, it’s often unclear if the listener is actually supposed to listen carefully to Drake’s narrative or just groove to the beat.
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4
4 — Wednesday, June 29, 2022
STATEMENT
Disney’s still too scared to say “gay” For decades, Disney has prided itself on creating magic. Disney’s products are designed to add some magic to life, to create an escape from the greater problems of the world. But all of that work promoting itself as a source of joy and happily-ever-after sometimes seems like a shiny coat of paint over a cluster of wider issues. The truth is, when you wish upon Disney’s star … well, it might make a difference who you are. In the grand scheme of things, the umbrella of Disney companies occupies an incredible amount of cultural space. Despite being technically intended for kids, Disney’s movies, media and theme parks have an outsized effect on adults. Such an audience gives Disney influence and relevance not afforded to most companies. As a result, one of the strongest traits at the heart of Disney’s business model is that they try to please everyone. Find themselves with a controversial installment in a beloved franchise? Use the next movie to walk everything back. Release a movie that represents Pixar’s first box office failure? Stick to sequels based on existing IP. Get complaints about the homogenous nature of stories told in Disney films?
inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters, and its stance on LGBTQ+ rights. In recent months, this hesitancy has unfolded dramatically in relation to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida. After initially not making a statement against the bill, numerous outraged employees spoke out on social media; Disney later apologized to employees and made an open statement of opposition that caused Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to take away tax-related autonomy that was previously awarded to Disney’s Orlando-based theme parks and resorts. Disney’s timidness about its support of the LGBTQ+ community is nothing new. For years, Disney has walked the line about Queer characters, trying to include characters that they can peddle as gay while also minimizing their presence to avoid enraging conservative Americans. Disney’s strategy, up until now, has been trying to appease both sides; the result, however, is that neither side is satisfied. Over the past few years, Disney and its subsidiaries have made several half-hearted attempts at LGBTQ+ representation in films and TV shows (although Disney has a long-running habit of queer-coding characters). In 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” liveaction remake, Le Fou is canonically gay because of a brief dance between him and Gaston. “Star Wars: Rise
Branch out to different media. Over the past decade or so, Disney has leaned into a push for diversity in media, both in terms of characters and the creators who bring them to life. But one area where Disney has been increasingly hesitant is the
of Skywalker” features a brief kiss between two women. “Avengers: Endgame” shows a male character casually mentioning going on a date with a man. In “Onward,” a police officer briefly mentions her girlfriend. Most recently, a brief kiss between
KARI ANDERSON
Statement Correspondent
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two married women in “Lightyear” received a lot of press — initially because of its removal and subsequent return, but more so now because of the countries that have banned the film’s release because of it. The connecting word here? “Brief.” All of these “representations” of LGBTQ+ characters were less than 10 seconds. These attempts to add Queer characters to the canon feel hollow because they are. Being inclusive and open-minded is trendy for businesses. Checking boxes — a gay character here, a person of Color there, a disabled character somewhere in there — is a business strategy designed to prove a kind of inclusivity that is becoming more prevalent in the U.S. The reality of an issue-conscious economy is what leads to a phenomenon called rainbow washing. Rainbow washing is when a business shows public support for the LGBTQ+ community without putting in any actual work towards empowering queer folks. It’s associated with empty gestures like changing logos for pride month (which are then routinely changed back on July 1) that create a front-facing show of support without addressing the culture within their company — or, more often than not, without acknowledging donations to anti-LGBTQ+ politicians. It’s hypocritical but tactical; this way, if companies are accused of being bigoted or homophobic, they can point to their rainbow logo and tell conscientious consumers, “No … see?” In the case of Disney, selling pride merchandise and changing their logo and social media scheme during Pride Month is only part of their rainbowfriendly strategy; the same mentality behind rainbow-washing is what leads to the incremental inclusion of Queer characters. Each of these moments, despite feeling like the bare minimum, is then touted as momentous by directors and executives and conflated into a significance that feels difficult (if not impossible) to achieve in the span of a few seconds. Showing small, ephemeral exchanges of affection between gay characters is a welcome step, but categorizing it as a “milestone” feels disingenuous; more often than not, it’s marketing.
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What we don’t say out loud EMILY BLUMBERG
Statement Correspondent
My dad says that every good joke has some layer of truth to it. In the ongoing cultural pursuit to determine what makes “funny” things funny, he argues that the most effective jokes are those rooted in real human experiences and emotions. Usually, this comment is in reference to an unreasonably offensive comment made by me that I attempt to write off as a joke out of guilt and/or embarrassment. But not always, and fortunately, not in this piece. I’ve always wondered if my dad is right, so let’s test it out with a very small and very unprofessional case study of a joke from Comedy Central’s “Broad City” that is somewhat realistic yet absolutely ridiculous. And a little, let’s say, intimate. That’s your warning! One of “Broad City’s” many running gags is that one of its protagonists, Ilana, sneaks weed through airport security by putting it up her vagina — as one does. When the drug-sniffing dog senses what’s going on, Ilana already has a plan in motion: She wears white pants stained with old-period blood and cries that the dog is sexually harassing her in a voice eminent of the quintessential helpless woman. It’s hard to describe with words without making it seem wildly disgusting and uncomfortable, but it’s never failed to make me laugh. And so I ask myself: If the truth theory is applicable, where are the roots of this bit? I believe it can be boiled down into three relatively simple truths: Before weed was legal in much of the United States, people had to get pretty creative to move it around. Even though half the world experiences them, periods are a taboo enough subject to make a well-meaning TSA officer run back to his podium, no questions asked. Someone who bled through their pants in a public place would typically feel embarrassed and defenseless. Ilana uses the last two truths to her advantage, subverting cultural expectations for women in order to accomplish her goal. If I could ever get my dad to watch enough of “Broad City” to get to this episode, I think he’d appreciate the joke. Ilana, in all her boldness and over-the-top scheming, brings to the forefront a piece of
womanhood we often quietly tiptoe around. So it seems that my dad’s theory, in this scenario, checks out. We laugh with Ilana not only because she’s funny, but because her ideas come from the wellknown lived experience of her and her audience. The entirety of “Broad City” follows this trend, telling the story of two late-20s Jewish women living in a very real — and often very demeaning — New York City. The show’s creators and stars, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, are the modern iteration of a somewhat particular but extremely necessary niche; the professional truth-teller. In the midst of a post-war obsession with the G-rated, obedient housewife, a slew of Jewish women worked to tell the tales of an honest, realistic and thought-provoking female experience. In her discourse, “One Clove Away From a Pomander Ball: The Subversive Tradition of Jewish Female Comedians,” historian Joyce Antler chronicles the cultural space occupied by these comedians since the mid-20th century. “Fanny Brice, Molly Picon, and Gilda Radner mugging it up may not seem dignified, and certainly Joan Rivers clowning about fallen vaginas is anything but,” Antler wrote. “However, these comedians’ performances show that Jewish women can be proud of the comic tradition in which they have been trailblazers.” The success of these comedic pioneers, Antler suggests, can be partially attributed to their connections to, and commentary on, womens’ liberation. In a media landscape where women were often restricted in self-expression to only what men could tolerate, Jewish female comedians forced their audiences to reconsider their perceptions of the female body and mind. “Perhaps this is because women’s humor often deals with the incongruities and inequities of a world founded on gender distinctions,” Antler continued. “Their humor challenges the structures that keep women from power by turning our attention to things that matter to women.” It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that another common trait among these women is their unapologetic boldness. They’re the women who can’t be kept down or silenced or asked to keep their content clean.
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Watch more Telugu movies (and listen to ThyGap!) SMARANI KOMANDURI MiC Columnist
Maybe I’m biased, but Telugu films never get the recognition they deserve. Only recently have Telugu films become more readily available in their original language via streaming platforms and screened in theaters worldwide, increasing accessibility. Out of the top 87 highest grossing Indian films to date, the Telugu films that are ranked are “Rangasthalam” (2018) at number 74, “Sarileru Neekevvaru” (2020) at number 60, “Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy” (2019) at number 55, “Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo” (2020) at number 49, “Pushpa: The Rise – Part 1” (2021) at number 23, “Baahubali: The Beginning” (2015) at number 10, “RRR” (2022) at number four and “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” (2017) sits at number two. Although Telugu films are slowly starting to make their marks on the charts, the Hindi film industry has always dominated popular notions of Indian cinema. Hindi actors and directors are the ones that have wax figures made of them at Madame Tussauds. They’re the ones that get to walk the red carpets, represent film festival panels and strike Hollywood deals. Time after time we’ve witnessed the Hindi film industry take screenplays from the Telugu industry and other South Indian industries, and while the original Telugu screenplays
have higher ratings, they’re still not as popular as their Hindi remakes. For example, many Hindi-film fans will know the iconic film “Rowdy Rathore” (2012) and its soundtrack, but many of those same fans would be shocked to find out that it is a remake of the Telugu movie “Vikramarkudu” (2006). The film even uses some of the same songs, just translated into Hindi! While “Vikramarkdu” has a 3.4 out of 5.0 rating on Letterboxd, “Rowdy Rathore” has a 2.3 rating. If you take a peek at that same list of the top 87 highest-grossing Indian movies, you’ll see “Rowdy Rathore” at 87, while the original “Vikramarkudu” is nowhere to be found. Not only are some of the highestgrossing Indian films just Hindi remakes of Telugu screenplays, some of these films go as far as to make fun of South Indian culture altogether. Films like “Ra.One” (2011) and “Chennai Express” (2013) are prime examples of films that stereotype South Indian culture, yet they’re some of the highest-grossing Indian films to date, ranking at number 80 and 19 respectively. So how can I convince you to pay more attention to the Telugu film industry? It’s not a task I can do alone, so I decided to sit down with the hosts of ThyGap Telugu Podcast. The hosts, using the pseudonyms BeingBrut and BogusNoog, review popular Telugu films, using sarcastic and witty humor to make anyone that can understand Telugu laugh until they have tears streaming down their faces. And
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luckily for you, if you don’t understand Telugu or have Telugu friends willing to translate, they also have an English podcast under the same name, ThyGap, which is just as entertaining. Brut, Bogus and I all feel that the Telugu film industry has the potential of showcasing stories on the same caliber as the Western and Hindi film industries. “Today, the fourth wall of moviemaking has been broken,” Brut explained. “You are no (longer) bound by your regional concepts, you’re no (longer) bound by the regional talent. We have the potential of being as good storytellers as the Western (and/or Hindi) movie industry, but we somehow don’t seem to be going in that direction. And the reason that was told before was that the audiences don’t want it.” But did audiences truly not want it? Before streaming services became mainstream, that may have been the case. “There’s a lot more exposure of the Hindi-speaking audience to the Tamil content and Kannada content and Telugu content,” Brut said. Before streaming platforms, it was difficult to find films with subtitles, so unless you understood Telugu, you wouldn’t be able to watch a Telugu movie. But now that subtitles and closed captions are the default on streaming platforms and in theaters, that’s no longer a concern. “We feel like the audiences are ready,” Brut said. We’ve seen Telugu screenwriters reuse Hindi scripts in the past. However, Brut, Bogus and I don’t think that will continue to be the case. We feel that Telugu storytellers are pioneering original content, especially with recent films like “RRR,” sparking conversation about whether this could be a potential Oscar submission from India for “Best Foreign Language Film.” “(The Telugu film industry) just started off, but the road map looks really exciting, is what we can say,” Brut said. “Storytelling is obviously the core of any content making, so a better question to ask is: are there good storytellers now?” Storytelling is an art and a skill in and of itself. We are all storytellers, or at least consume stories via one medium or another. Storytelling allows the Telugu film industry to share cultural experiences, and through those experiences we’re able to learn from and teach each other more about ourselves and the world.
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Wednesday, June 29, 2022 — 5
Beyond the promises of growth
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MEERA KUMAR MiC Columnist
At the farm, I’ve seen plants grow. A few days ago, I smoothed my fingers over thousands of black scallion seeds with a funky smell at the bottom of a glass container; the seeds rolled around in small yet persistent waves of water harvested from a pump on the farm. They stuck to my hands, even as I shook off water droplets. Hiding in my sleeve, under my nails, in between fingers, the yet-to-germinate black particles wouldn’t leave. Suddenly, their weight was noticeable. My coworkers and boss were fascinated by the scallion seeds. “How do they know what to do?” they marveled. “I wish I knew what I was supposed to do next,” another one remarked over their shoulder while we packed the seeds into small cartons of soil, designed to be transplanted once the scallions grow. To be fair, to be stationary and to have a functioning procedure for food and water consumption — which is your main concern for survival — decided before your ancestors’ ancestors were born doesn’t lead to analysis paralysis. To be a plant is to be that and nothing more (or less); they are fragile and ephemeral and feathery, and, yes, they feed and shelter much of the natural and built world. The entire life of the next generation is already written in their seeds before they flutter to the ground, never realizing the exhilarating taste of autonomy, nor the bitter, overwhelming flavor of possibility that makes you forget
everything else you came for. In “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a movie I have seen no less than three times in theaters, the main antagonist is Joy, a Queer Asian American girl with mommy issues. She is influenced by a giant everything bagel black hole of her own creation that inexplicably sucks in those in a tender, desperate state of mind. Joy, who is forced by her mother to always see all of her potential futures in an infinity of alternate timelines, collapses and puts it “all onto a bagel” (also with sesame and poppy seeds) that implodes under its own weight. This creates a dark void that sucks the goodness out of the worlds of those who come close to the bagel, those who cannot bear the unbearable weight of vision, of possibility, of life during late-stage capitalism. The movie shows that to exist in multiple timelines of what “could have been,” to be solely obsessed with countless possibilities, as Mitski and David Byrne sing in “This is a Life” during the end credits, “View of other worlds / From our window sills / With the weight of eternity / At the speed of light” is to fracture the self. But how can a fragmented self glue itself together? How can we scrape off the seeds we’ve longed for, the seeds that stick to us, in a world of extreme connectivity, an age of “opportunity,” with the highest worldwide average wealth recorded in history (adjusted for inflation) and more pretty people than we can process? If anyone can do “anything,” why haven’t we done what we’ve wanted to do? And what am I supposed to do?
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Opinion
6 — Wednesday, June 29, 2022
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BRANDON COWIT Managing Editor
The rise of sports management in the age of NIL TYLER FIORITTO LSA Senior
Think about a time when you’ve heard a comment about college athletes not going to school “for school.” Maybe, instead, you know someone who has been disincentivized from continuing athletics in college because they “need to grow up” and “be realistic” about their future. All these phrases and countless others are unfairly thrown at hopeful athletes working hard to turn their dreams into reality. That’s because for decades athletes were split into two camps: those with professional prospects and those without them. Today, however, the realm of amateur athletics and sports business is bustling with opportunity, even for those who lack the skill and athleticism to be a professional athlete. Job openings for regional sports agents, sports economists, sports lawyers and the numerous other opportunities created in this particularly volatile time for the NCAA provide sprawling pathways of career potential for ex-athletes, non-athletes and, especially, student athletes. In last year’s LSA Student Government election, hundreds of students voted in support of creating a sports management minor, with 75 of those students saying they would enroll in the offering outright. This is significant because students who are not even enrolled in the School of Kinesiology, which has a sports management major and would be the potential minor’s parent school, are willing to sign up in droves. This trend seems destined to continue. A series of rulings in name, image and likeness (NIL) court cases provided a watershed moment in 2021, where athletes became able to use their own names for
business partnerships. From local car dealerships to cryptocurrency auctions, NIL has opened the floodgates for both the financial prospects of college athletes and an explosion of labor demand for those facilitating this new fixture of collegiate athletics. The University of Michigan, as a true microcosm of the new NCAA landscape, has recently made many sports management classes available to students. These classes often focus both on projects specifically designed for navigating NIL’s effects on marketing and on incentivizing boundless creativity in maximizing NIL benefits to all stakeholders. Even alumni are swiftly organizing NIL offerings for athletes. Interest in the sports industry has even spilled into LSA undergraduate programs through Sports and Economics, a new upper-level economics elective. With more national media coverage dedicated to NIL deals, additional course offerings outside of the School of Kinesiology will be essential to the subject’s complete study. It is not all sunshine and roses yet, as the University clearly has a shortage of course offerings compared to the immense student demand for sports-related study. However, our School of Kinesiology was still rated the second-best college for sports management in the country — despite not offering a sports management minor at all. It’s even easy to show a path for how a sports management minor could easily be organized. The minor could begin with SM 203, an introductory course already offered by the School of Kinesiology, and could continue with any number of the 200-level, 300-level or 400-level courses available to sports management majors. This supplemental program offering
Do personality tests really know us? LINDSEY SPENCER
Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com
VANESSA KIEFER
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would be immensely valuable to anyone, including student athletes, seeking to tailor their studies to their occupational aspirations. The good news is that the University seems to be making an effort for both its student athletes and sports management-related studies as a whole. Athletic Director Warde Manuel has professed a focus not only on navigating NIL’s effects but also on the need for an inextricably linked advancement of education for student athletes. What is better for helping equip student athletes with professional skills tailored for the sports industry than expanding the course offerings and degree programs available to them? Additionally, with greater investment in sports management studies, non-athletes studying disciplines adjacent to the sports industry (such as economics or business) could increasingly study the effects of NIL, helping the University truly become the face of sports management education around the globe. The University has both the resources and an interested student population sufficient enough to make a sports management minor and ascend beyond to new academic frontiers. Student athletes who dedicate themselves to their craft can have a future in sports beyond being an athlete. Using their time as students, or even returning to a familiar campus, can mold passion into a tangible set of skills with which to build a lifelong career in the familiar realm of sports. The numbers are clear regarding sports management. With the financial prospects in the sports industry increasing, especially with the advent of NIL at the college level, it’s no wonder why the interest in its study is growing abundantly; the onus is now on the University to give the people what they want.
I
f you were to ask me what kind of dessert I am, I would probably say a chocolate chip cookie. When it comes to seasons, I am obviously autumn. I also belong in a quaint ranch-style home, am destined to marry a Taurus and should definitely eat steak for dinner tonight. These facts have been determined by my various choices on the entertaining black hole that is Buzzfeed Quizzes. From my choices on what food I would like to have at each meal to my dream vacation, this website can seemingly figure out all aspects of my destiny. My love for these mindless quizzes has evolved into an obsession with more psychologically sound examinations. My favorite test has become the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or “MBTI,” a 90-or-soquestion online assessment that makes judgments about one’s values, social skills and overall personality. A proud “ENTJ,” I take this test to heart and attribute almost all of my interactions and traits to this simple combination of letters. I tend to immediately make judgments about people I meet, usually immediately
thinking someone is an “I,” as in introvert, or are a close tossup between a person focused on “thought” or “feeling” when it comes to decision-making. There are reasons as to why personality tests, both silly and more professional, mean so much to us. Whether it be the results from the MBTI test, our Zodiac signs or our status as a “morning person,” we like to be told who we are by other people or, in some cases, computer algorithms. Psychologists say that, as humans, we are often dependent on the perspectives that others have of our qualities. We desire validation for who we believe ourselves to be in our minds. We take what these quiz results say seriously because we feel empowered by the results; we like to know who we are, and we want others to know us as well. It feels good to be placed into a distinct “type” of person. It lets us know that we belong somewhere — that we are like others out there — and that our habits and personality fit into a group. Understanding ourselves is a central reason why we take personality tests, but another reason is to understand others.
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Cooking in heaven, living in hell: an exploration of #MeToo on cooking television AVERY CRYSTAL Opinion Columnist
J
ulia Child’s kitchen is full of light. The preeminent cooking instructor and celebrity chef of the 20th century, Child is credited with introducing the American public to international fine dining. On her PBS television show “In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs,” a charismatic chef sports colorful silk blouses, decorates her countertop with fresh flowers and delights guests with her inviting disposition. Child passed away in 2004, but clicking through cooking channels shows that her legacy of elegant food and bright, tasteful presentation remains. On Food Network, Italian-American chef Giada De Laurentiis sprinkles salt over pesto crostini in her immaculate white kitchen.
Meanwhile, on the Cooking Channel’s “Real Girl’s Kitchen,” actress Haylie Duff beams over a cornucopia of mini muffins for her Christmas brunch. The world of celebrity chefs displayed across American channel guides is narrowly defined. On Food Network, producers create a utopian atmosphere for their female celebrity chefs. Women never break a sweat while drizzling olive oil or carrying large salads out to their perfectly manicured gardens. The channels are aiming to sell products, so, of course, televised kitchens are aspirationally flooded with sunlight. Our favorite chefs don spotless aprons when using their sponsored KitchenAid mixers and never lose their megawatt smile. The aim of these shows is to sell a heavenly world to American women.
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Sports
Wednesday, June 29, 2022 — 7
50 YEARS OF TITLE IX
Absence of female athletic directors in the NCAA stands out TAYLOR DANIELS Daily Sports Writer
The concept of women in sports often centers around the idea of female athletes. But there are so many roles beyond athletes that are crucial to the functioning of a team behind the scenes. For every school and for every sport, the athletic director is a role that is vital to the success of each team. And while there are roughly the same number of men’s and women’s sports programs at each school — for example 13 men’s and 14 women’s teams at Michigan — there are significantly fewer female athletic directors in that front office position across the NCAA. That problem is not new — it has a long history. Before the NCAA took over the governing of women’s athletics prior to the 1982-83 school year, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) served that role. And in the AIAW, many leadership positions were held by women. But after the NCAA — which actively fought against Title IX and the AIAW — took over due to its larger budget and more widespread marketing, many of those roles disappeared as the AIAW folded. In 1973, 95% of women’s athletic programs were women-led, but in 1985 — three years after the NCAA replaced the AIAW — that number dropped to 14%, and that same year, 38% of programs did not have a single female administrator. Many women who previously held leadership positions in the AIAW were demoted when their institutions joined the NCAA. Liz Murphey, a former women’s athletic director at Georgia under the AIAW, was demoted to assistant athletic director after the switch to the NCAA. Murphey is
just one example of how women in leadership positions were treated after the NCAA took over. But female athletic directors didn’t go away quietly. The Council of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators — now known as Women Leaders in College Sports — was founded in 1979 by a group of female athletic administrators. The organization aims to develop female leadership, advance women in their careers and create a community of women working in sports. Its current CEO, Patti Phillips, wrote that “cultural and societal bias drives much of the inequity in college athletics … gender inequality in the world of sports has existed for decades, and a major contributor can be explained in one word: football.” Chief among those influences, football — almost exclusively a men’s sport — is the main revenue source for many colleges, especially in Power Five conferences. Accordingly, gender bias when it comes to hiring an athletic director — who oversees football — prevails. According to a 2019 research report from the Michigan Task Force on Women in Sports, both women and men perceive gender bias in the hiring practices and workplace culture of sports leadership at the college level. Women experience gender inequity amid a deeply ingrained male-dominated culture. In sports leadership, women must work both within and against that culture to succeed. “I think the perception is (that) opportunities are there and processes are fair and equal, but they aren’t truly whether it be budgets, salaries, promotions, or how women leaders are viewed and evaluated by peers and administrators,” a respondent to the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Female Leaders in Sport Survey in 2019 said. The report also found that the lack
of access to mentors was the greatest hindrance to the development of women leaders. While the number of women in high-level positions has increased in recent years — this week, for example, Nevada hired Stephanie Rempe as its next athletic director — the inequity remains glaring. In the 2020-2021 academic year, only 24% of athletic directors in the NCAA were women — and just 14% in Division 1. And the University of Michigan, which has never had a female athletic director since the position’s creation in 1898, exemplifies that disparity. The Wolverines aren’t alone in that regard, and there are currently no female athletic directors in the Big Ten. The absence of women leading NCAA front offices highlights the need for increased female mentorship in the sport industry. In her USA Today op-ed, Phillips proposed keys to evening out that disparity. Those include creating diversity commitments, encouraging university academic leaders to join in finding a solution and speaking directly to men about sports gender inequity. Currently, opportunities exist for women as athletes, coaches, administrators, general managers and broadcasters that would not have been possible prior to Title IX. But there is still a long way to go, and change begins at the top. “It’s on us as female coaches to keep pushing. It’s on athletic departments to keep hiring strong females and females in administration to bring to light just what we have to go through as female athletes,” Michigan women’s lacrosse coach Hannah Nielsen said in a video about Title IX. Fifty years after Title IX passed into law, change still needs to occur in hiring female athletic directors. Doing so could be key to expanding gender equity in sports beyond the law’s current progress.
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Sports
8 — Wednesday, June 29, 2022
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With the Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs ruling, women’s rights to abortions — and autonomy — have been shattered. This moment is bigger than sports, and we want to share some resources everyone can use to do their part.
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Task Force on Women in Sports shows that Title IX isn’t enough in Michigan
50 YEARS OF TITLE IX
ELIZABETH CUSHNIR Daily Sports Writer
In 2019, Governor Gretchen Whitmer created the Task Force on Women in Sports in the leadup to the 50th anniversary of Title IX with the goal of creating “opportunities in Michigan for girls and women in sports” and increasing the presence of women in leadership positions in the larger economy. The task force’s final report to Whitmer, published on June 22, 2022, drew a conclusion that many women in sports are all too familiar with: Title IX alone isn’t enough to create genuine equity in sports. But the task force also did something more. In addition to releasing multiple research reports throughout its three-year existence, it also detailed three ways to close the gender gap in sports, and set the state of Michigan up to lead an increase in sports equity: Recommendation 1: “Modernize and expand upon Federal Title IX requirements to increase protections, compliance, and accountability. Recommendation 2: “Invest in pathways for Michigan girls and women to play, work, and lead in sports in Michigan.
Every Wolverines’ men’s varsity Recommendation 3: “Encourage make up only 46.1% of studentMichiganders to support and invest athletes. And while it’s difficult to sport has a male coach at the helm. in future opportunities and access analyze funding disparities due to On the women’s side, track and for girls and women at all levels of football generating and receiving field and cross country, rowing, the majority of funds, the recruiting swimming and diving, volleyball and sports.” Its advice to expand federal Title budget of women’s teams makes up water polo are all coached by men. Across Michigan’s 27 teams, there are IX requirements is intended to just 12% of all recruiting expenses. Across all 27 of the Wolverines’ significantly more male coaches than increase funding for and support of women’s sports from the government athletic programs in the 2020-21 female coaches at the assistant level. This isn’t a disparity specific level. The task force hopes this academic year, the report showed will facilitate improvements in that the average salary of an assistant only to the Wolverines. One study opportunities and facilities for coach for a men’s team is 3.5 times the conducted as part of the task force’s research found that across women’s athletics. collegiate athletics in the While federal Title But as the task force found state of Michigan, women IX requirements — and as almost any female coached just 41% of women’s mandate proportional opportunities for men athlete can tell you — a lot more teams and a meager 4% of men’s teams. and women in college work needs to be done to truly The task force athletics, the reality is that level the playing field. also reported that less than 10% of NCAA underqualified men were Division I schools provide opportunities to female athletes at a average salary of an assistant coach more likely to be hired for coaching positions while qualified women still rate proportional to their enrollment. for a women’s team. But the task force doesn’t believe faced significant hurdles to earn jobs. “Only 9% of NCAA Division I The committee believes that institutions (30 of 348) offered athletic that simply matching women’s opportunities to female athletes athletics funding and opportunities supporting female leaders in sports proportional to their enrollment,” at the government level will cause is crucial to achieving equity. It also the task force noted in one report. sufficient change. The second recommends that Michiganders give “In Michigan, participation rates for recommendation is to create their support to women’s sports at all female student-athletes average 13% pathways for women in Michigan to levels. This final recommendation, while of the female student enrollment … lead and work in sports too. Many studies have proven that the most abstract, has the potential compared to a participation rate for male student-athletes that averages women who play sports are more to provide the spark that leads to likely to achieve leadership positions grander changes in college athletics. 20% male student enrollment.” Attendance at men’s and women’s At Michigan, despite making up later on in their lives, whether within sporting events at Michigan isn’t nearly 51% of the student body, women or outside of the sports industry.
even remotely close to equal. Despite having a significantly stronger win percentage than the Michigan men’s basketball team in the 2021-22 season, the Wolverines’ women’s basketball team rarely received even a quarter of the fan turnout that the men’s team received. In a historic season that saw Michigan advance to its first-ever Elite Eight, its support from students and fans lagged behind significantly. As the task force noted, efforts to achieve gender equity in sports are more successful when they start from the ground up in youth sports. By the time they get to college, female student-athletes have already faced significant disparities throughout their athletic careers. But a large part of that stems from a lack of female role models that young girls in sports have. The state of Michigan doesn’t have a lack of strong female athletes, and neither does the University. Rather, it suggests there’s a lack of support — whether intentional or not — from the student body, fans and athletics departments. Looking back 50 years, a lot of progress has been made toward gender equity in college sports. But as the task force found — and as almost any female athlete can tell you — a lot more work needs to be done to truly level the playing field.