Counterpoint

Counterpoint
OCTOBER 2007
VOLUME 31 / ISSUE 2
THE MIT/WELLESLEY JOURNAL
OF CAMPUS LIFE
A Mouse in Siberia
Dispatches: Lake Baikal
p10
Back in the U.S.S.R?
The state of Russian politics
p8
Beaver’s Back!
The triumphant return of our sex
and dating column
p18
w r i t e e d i t l a yo u t p h o to g ra p h
d r a w co n t i b u t e a r g u e b a n t e r
fa c t - c h e ck p ro of re a d d e s i g n
fundraise advertise
s o m a ny w a y s t o co n t r i b u t e
t o co u n t e r p o i n t
e m a i l co u n t e r p o i n t @ mi t . e d u
E D I TO R I A L S TA F F
Editors in Chief
Managing Editor
Edward Summers MIT ’08
Kara Hadge WC ’08
Kristina Costa WC ’09
Marion Johnson WC ’09
Counterpoint
The MIT/Wellesley Journal of Campus Life
October 2007
Volume 31 / Issue 2
D E S I G N S TA F F
Layout Editors
Kristina Costa WC ’09
Hailey Huget WC ’10
Artistic Director
Julie Camarda WC ’08
c a m p u s
B U S I N E S S S TA F F
Advisor
Treasurers
Rebecca Faery MIT F
Katie Gosling WC ’10
Sandy Naing WC ’09
Business Manager
Rayla Heide WC ’10
S TA F F W R I T E R S
E.B. Bartels WC ’10, Julie Camarda WC ’08, Janet
Chen WC ’10, Maggie Cooke WC ’09, Veronica
Cole WC ’09, Kristina Costa WC ’09, Kara Hadge
WC ’08, Ouqi Jiang MIT ’08, Marion Johnson WC
’09, Catherine H. Lee WC ’08, Ami Li WC ’10, Itamar Kimchi MIT ’08, Edward Summers MIT ’08,
Barrett Strickland MIT ’08, Lizzy Wilkins WC ’09
M I T C O N T R I B U TO R S
JENNY KIM
20 Traffic Tends to Come from the Right
ELANA
ALTMAN
21 First-Year, Meet Fraternity
Tips for surviving life in London.
This is college?
p o l i t i c s
MARION
JOHNSON
7
Gen. Petraeus Goes to Washington
KRISTINA
COSTA
8
Da, Comrade!
Kevin DiGenova ’07, Ken Haggerty ’11, Rashida
Nek ’07, Adam Nolte G, Durga Prasad Pandey G,
Vivi Vasudevan ’07, Mike Yee ’08
W EL LESLEY CO NTR IB UTO RS
Yetunde Abass ’09, Elana Altman ’11, Megan Cunniff ’11, Ellis
Friedman ’08, Rayla Heide ’10, Ellen Huerta ’08, Jenny Kim
’08, Nauf Latef ’09, Maria Mattera ’09, Alex Ording ’09, Elizabeth Pan ’11, Erin Rangel ’08, Jane Repetti ’09, Nancy Sandoval
’08, Katherine Scafuri ’11, Caroline Sun ’11, Minying Tan ’08,
AlyssaTorres ’09, Melissa Woods ’08, Jennifer Willis ’08
KARA
HADGE
VERONICA
COLE
JANE
REPETTI
&
c u l t u r e
The Beatles take you Across the Universe.
14 “Don’t Tase Me, Bro”
Violence and the YouTube generation.
16 The Not-So-Lonely World of Lonelygirl15
Charting the downfall of the YouTube phenomenon.
r e g u l a r s
4
Counterpoint welcomes all submissions of articles and letters.
Email submissions to [email protected]. Counterpoint
encourages cooperation between writers and editors but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length and clarity.
ELIZABETH
PAN, MEGAN
CUNNIFF &
KARA HADGE
5
SUB SCR IPTIO N S
E.B. BARTELS
SUB M IS SIO N S
Cover photo: EB Bartels WC ‘10
How Putin is ruining Russia for democracy.
13 Come Together
JENNY KIM
STAFF
/etc
Britney’s “comeback.”
Agenda
Events at MIT, Wellesley and the greater Boston area
10
Dispatches
22
Last Page
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Counterpoint is funded in part by the MIT Undergraduate Association Financial Board and by the Wellesley
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content of Counterpoint. Counterpoint thanks its departmental sponsors at Wellesley: Middle Eastern Studies,
Peace and Justice Studies, Art, Philosophy, and Africana
Studies; and at MIT: Writing & Humanistic Studies.
A House, a Senate, a General and a war.
a r t s
TR U S TE ES
Matt Burns MIT ’05, Brian Dunagan MIT ’03, Tracey L.
Godbold WC ’07, Stephanie Landers WC ’07, Minying Tan
WC ’08, Kristen Thane WC ’05, Vivi Vasudevan MIT ’07
l i f e
Lake Baikal: a photo essay
We ask people at Remix what they think of Wellesley, and
how many drinks they’ve had.
counterpoint
3
Baby, One More Time
Britney’s back. Sort of.
{ by jenny kim}
I
t’s official! Britney is finally back!
And it’s about time. After taking a
two year break to start and raise a
family with her beloved, now divorced,
K-Fed, the notorious Britney Spears
has—unfortunately for most of us—decided to make her presence known in the
music scene.
Fans got a taste of her upcoming release with her new single “Gimme More”
from her overly-hyped-up, as-yet-to-benamed album due out in mid November
2007. Like most of her songs, “Gimme
More” revolves around fast, catchy beats,
4
repetitive lyrics and, of course, Britney’s
signature moaning and groaning. In
short, it’s exactly what you got in her
previous albums. Some artists refuse to
change or grow, and Britney is no exception.
To promote the album and make her
official comeback, Britney performed
her single at the MTV Video Music
Awards held in Las Vegas in September.
Her performance, which was the opening act, was quite an eyebrow-raiser,
and for all the wrong reasons. Throughout the performance, Britney seemed
counterpoint
spacey, confused and even awkward,
causing some to question whether she
was “on something.” Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton even went so far as to
say, “She blew it... it was so bad, it was
painful, it was embarrassing!” Is this the
same Britney who a few years ago took
the world by storm by dancing with a
yellow boa constrictor and made international news headlines by locking lips
with Madonna?
Granted, her VMA performance this
year was horrendous. It was obvious
that she lip-synched her way through
the entire song, and even forgot some—
or most—of her dance moves. Then
again, since when has Britney been
known for not lip-synching? And give
the girl a break. She’s been on hiatus for
two years. Of course she’s not going to
be as limber and tight as she used to be
when she first sang “… Baby One More
Time.”
Britney has been extremely busy during her break. When she’s not mothering
her two children or loaning out cash to
her ex-husband, she’s partying somewhere
with Paris and Lindsay while showing off
her most private body parts to the rest of
the world. Britney is the prime example
of a super-mom.
I don’t know about most of you, but
I’m certainly ready for more Britney.
With her album only a month away,
Britney is sure to wow us continuously
with both her on-stage and off-stage
antics. Even if we are unimpressed by
her music, we can all agree that Britney
sure has a way to keep the whole world
amused. So sit back and join me when
I say, in Britney’s own words, “Gimme
more!”
Jenny Kim ’08 ([email protected]) is sittin’
on the dock of the bay.
Staff Illustration / Alyssa Torres WC ‘09
/ E TC
Agenda
MIT EVENTS
The 7th Annual MIT Great Glass Pumpkin Patch
MIT: Fri 10/5 5-8 pm, Sat 10/6 10 am – 3
pm. (Rain Date: 10/7 10 am – 3 pm.)
MIT glassblowers of varying experience have worked together to create
and install over 1000 handblown glass
pumpkins, each a unique and intriguing work of art. Visitors can attend the
opening reception on Friday to preview
the pieces, which will be sold Saturday
to benefit the MIT Glass Lab. Browsing
both days is free and open to the general
public, while the pumpkins themselves
generally carry price ranges from $20200.
Kresge Oval
Holography: The Light Fantastic
MIT: Ongoing, 10 am – 5 pm.
Come see selections from the world’s
largest collection of holographic images
at the MIT Museum! In an ongoing exhibit, the museum offers an introduction
to the diverse artistic and scientific applications of holography. Learn how holographic imaging technology has affected
everything from anthropology to medicine to the credit card industry, and see
the work of world-renowned holographic
artists. Free with MIT ID, students with
ID $3, others $7.50. Free Sundays 10 am
– noon.
MIT Museum
MIT SCUBA Club: Underwater Hockey
MIT: Tuesdays, 8:20-10:00 pm.
“Underwater hockey,” a bottom-of-thepool game played with pucks and short
sticks, is a fun co-ed activity which is famous for offering a great workout. New
players are welcome at any time (bring
October 2007
your bathing suit!), and should email
[email protected] for more information. Pool access is free to MIT athletic
card holders, $7 with student ID and $12
to all others.
Zesiger Center Pool
Titus Andronicus
MIT: Thu 10/25 – Sat 10/27, 8-10:30
pm
Like violent movies? How about iambic pentameter? Then you’ll definitely
want to see MIT’s Shakespeare Ensemble performing the classic Titus
Andronicus, one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays -- and certainly his bloodiest.
The location is still under determination, so email ensemble-request@mit.
edu for information later in the month.
Tickets are $8 general admission and
$6 for students.
TBA
Beginner Salsa Lessons
MIT: Tuesdays, 7-8:30 pm
Every Tuesday, the MIT Salsa Club offers
beginner lessons free to the public – no
partner or prior experience required. (Already learned the most basic steps and
turns? Then come at 7:30 instead to learn
new material.) See http://web.mit.edu/
salsaclub for more details.
Morss Hall, Walker Memorial (Oct. 2,
16, 23, 20)
Lobby 13 (Oct. 9)
LSC: Once
MIT: Sat 10/6 7, 10 pm, Sun 10/7 10pm
This acclaimed Irish indie film chronicles the romance between a pair of
young musicians with passion only
equal to their emotional baggage – not
quite intrigued enough yet? Have we
mentioned it’s a musical? Come satisfy your curiosity with this Sundance-
counterpoint
award-winning movie, or check out the
rest of the Lecture Series Committee’s
fall film schedule at http://lsc.mit.edu.
Tickets are $3 and most LSC events are
open to the general public.
Building 26-100
CONCERTS
Hot Hot Heat, Thurs 10/11, 9:00 pm.
Getting colder? Well this indie rock band
certainly isn’t! After their first album release Make Up the Breakdown in 2002, the
up-and-coming band signed to Warner
Bros., where they produced their second
album Elevator. After a two-year hiatus,
this synth-based, wordplaying band is
back with their third album Happiness
LTD, which (unsurprisingly)
Online Calendars:
https://calendar.wellesley.edu/
wv3public
http://events.mit.edu
Events listed here are subject to
change. Readers are advised to
check with organizers ahead of
schedule.
Submitting an Event to Agenda:
Send title, date, time, duration,
location, brief synopsis, organizers/
sponsors, frequency of event (if applicable), contact information and
admission and ticketing requirements to:
[email protected]
Promotional pictures (of at least
200 dpi resolution) strongly encouraged but not required.
5
A G E N DA , O CTO B E R 2 0 0 7
has the same head-bopping, shout-outloud melodies. If you want to feel the
heat, catch them in concert! Tickets are
$19.50. This event is 18 and over.
See www.ticketmaster.com for more information.
Paradise Rock Club. Boston, MA
Of Montreal, Fri 10/12, 6:30 pm.
Indie rock juggernaut Of Montreal promises its consistently unique brand of wildly bizarre, yet eminently danceable shows
with melodies guaranteed to be stuck in
your head for weeks. Tickets are $20. See
www.ticketmaster.com for more information.
Roxy. Boston, MA
Stars, Fri 10/19, 7:30 pm.
Upon the recent release of their stunning
fourth album In Our Bedroom After the
War, Toronto-based Stars retains their status as the gold standard of melodic indie
pop. Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan
bring their trademark tweaked-to-perfection vocal harmonies to Berklee Performance Center in the kind of performance
you have to see to believe. Tickets are
$20.
See www.ticketmaster.com for more information.
Berklee Performance Center. Boston,
MA.
The New Pornographers, Tues 10/23, 7
pm.
The New Pornographers bring both energetic showstopper Carl Newman and the
breathtaking vocals of Neko Case to the
Roxy to prove once again why Canadian
indie rock deserves all the hype. Loud guitars and addictive, on-your-feet melodies
guarantee a uniquely electrifying show.
Tickets are $22.50. This event is 18 and
over.
See www.ticketmaster.com for more information.
Roxy. Boston, MA.
6
MISC.
17th Annual Pies on the Common
Sat 10/13, 10am-3pm.
Come to the Framingham community
fair! There will be crafters, local artists lots
of tasty refreshments, handmade candy,
a quilt raffle, and of course hundreds of
homebaked pies! Free parking and admission. All proceeds will go to benefit First
Parish Church in Framingham. For more
information, see http://www.firstparishframingham.org or contact (508) 8723111.
Framingham Centre Common. Edgell
Road & Vernon Street, Framingham,
MA.
The Boston Tea Party
Thurs 10/18, 6:30pm-8pm
Robert J. Allison, Professor of History at
Suffolk University, recounts the days leading up to the fateful night of December
16, 1773, when 342 chests of tea were
thrown into Boston Harbour. Booksigning to follow. Free admission. For more
information see http://www.cityofboston.
gov/calendar/calendar.asp
Old South Meeting House. 310 Washington Street, Boston MA 02108.
Sinners and Saints Halloween Bash
Sat 10/27, 9pm-2am.
Want to go crazy this Halloween? The
Boston Event Guide is producing a huge,
ghoulish party featuring a reception of light
hors d’eovers and spooky drinks for the first
hour, followed by DJ and dancing. Enjoy
complimentary body painting and a costume contest with over $1,000 in prizes at
this mosnter mash. Tickets are two for $25
or $15 each in advance; $20 at the door if
available. For tickets and more information
see http://www.bostoneventguide.com
Vinalia Boston. 101 Arch Street, Boston
MA.
Head of the Charles Regatta
Sat – Sun 10/20-21
About 7,500 athletes and over 300,000
counterpoint
spectators will converge on the Charles
for the world’s largest two-day rowing
competition. The forty-third annual regatta includes 55 race events throughout
the day as well as other entertainment: every year, Row-a-Palooza brings headlining
bands to perform. Past acts have included
Nada Surf and Gavin DeGraw. For more
information, visit www.hocr.org.
On the banks of the Charles River, from
DeWolfe Boathouse at Boston University
to Artesani Playground in Brighton
WELLESLEY
The Foreigner
Wellesley: Thu 10/25, 7pm; Fri 10/26,
8pm; Sat 10/27, 2pm and 8pm; Sun
10/28, 2pm and 7pm
Upstage presents a comedy by Larry Shue
about a British man who comes to rural
1980s Georgia and pretends not to understand English. Complications arise
and hilarity ensues. Admission free for
Wellesley and MIT students; $5 for students and seniors; and $10 for the general
public. For more information, contact
(781) 283-2220.
Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Alumnae Hall
CPLA Pizza Lunch: How the World Has
Changed Since 9/11
Wellesley: Wed 10/3, 12:30-1:30pm
CPLA hosts their first lunch-time lecture
this semester, a discussion of the changes
felt by the nation and world since September 11. Pizza will be served.
Pendleton Atrium
Falling Leaves Festival
Wellesley: Sat 10/20, 10am-9pm
The Felding Medieval Society hosts their
annual festival, a day-long event of fencing, hurley (a game similar to field hockey),
dancing and a pot-luck dinner. Merchants
will sell their wares, and one of the world’s
greatest commedia dell’arte troupes will
perform. Newcomers are welcome. Contact Elisabeth at [email protected] for
more information.
POLITICS
Gen. Petraeus Goes
to Washington
The fascinating spectacle of the Iraq war hearings
{ by marion johnson}
{
the terrorists there so we don’t have to
fight them here,” and declared our status in Iraq as ”unquestionably victorious.” Obama, unsurprisingly, used his
time meant to question Petraeus—or
at least meant to pretend to question
Petraeus—to make another one of his
thrilling speeches.
“We have now set the bar so low
that modest improvement in what was
a completely chaotic situation…is considered success. And it’s not,” Obama
Somehow Obama, Clinton and the
rest of the crew have to find a way
to be just as or even more reliable
and convincing than General Petraeus—and they’ll have to do it in
spite of rather than in conjunction
with MoveOn.org’s efforts.
against. Petraeus recommended that we
pull out one of our marine units immediately and by next summer withdraw
about 30,000 troops. This counsel would
bring us back to our pre-surge troop commitment.
Senators Hillary Clinton and
Barack Obama treated Petraeus as just
another piece of the Bush Administration Soundbite Machine, as though
he said things like, “We are fighting
{
T
his just in: the Democrats have
some serious problems on their
hands. On September 11 of this
year, General David Petraeus and U.S.
ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker delivered the better of their two Congressional testimonies on Iraq (the first to the
House, the second to the Senate). After an
embarrassing first showing in the House
on September 10, the two men pulled off
an excellent, honest and measured performance that will be hard to compete
ing for his left-wing fan base, but those
of us who are paying attention already
know that a total withdrawal by December 2008 is a fantasy and nothing
more. Acknowledging the grave realities
of the situation is not “setting the bar
low.” It’s being sensible. Then again, Petraeus is not constrained by the need to
get elected by the people. He can afford
to be honest.
Senator Clinton also gave Petraeus
and Crocker an unnecessarily yet expectedly hard time that day. She called
the men spokesmen for a “failed policy” and essentially dismissed their testimony as a work of fiction. One has
to wonder whether Clinton is so aggressively on the offensive about Iraq
to compensate for supporting it initially—something the Democrats seem
unwilling to forgive her for. Unfortunately, if this is the case, she picked the
wrong target in Petraeus. This man is
generally known around Washington
as one who keeps it real, and his testimony will not do anything at all to
change that perception.
So why is Petraeus’s testimony bad
news for the Democrats? Well, while
Petraeus admits that he doesn’t know
whether our continued involvement in
Iraq will make America safer, he also argued very convincingly that an immediate and total departure on our part would
lead to utter disaster. Bush would be a
complete fool (I know, I know) not to
use this advice to his advantage, especially given that Petraeus is so well-informed
and so dedicated to keeping it real. None
of the Democratic candidates have such
firsthand experience, and none of them
can claim to be non-partisan. Somehow
Obama, Clinton and the rest of the crew
have to find a way to be just as or even
more reliable and convincing than General Petraeus—and they’ll have to do it in
spite of rather than in conjunction with
MoveOn.org’s efforts.
said, before proceeding to catapult the
bar so high that he expects a full withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of
2008, an enforceable U.N.-sponsored
constitutional convention and a photograph of the Loch Ness Monster in its
underpants. Well, dare to dream, Mr.
Senator. Petraeus’s recommendations
are probably the most sensible and least
partisan that anyone has voiced recently.
All Obama did was a little grandstand-
counterpoint
Marion Johnson ’09 ([email protected])
is looking for Moose and Squirrel.
7
Back in the U.S.S.R?
How Putin is ruining Russia for democracy
{ by kristina costa}
L
ess than two decades after the
fall of the Berlin wall, the Russian economy is finally booming. Cranes dot the landscape of many
Russian cities, a testament to the many
construction projects aimed at modernization and expansion. Despite the economic boom, however, Russia remains a
land of contradiction. The rate of HIV
infection has been rising precipitously
for years, particularly among young
men; meanwhile, the government has
embarked upon a campaign to urge
young Russians to procreate in order to
fight the falling birthrate among ethnic
Russians. Popular American sitcoms
from decades past, including Married…
With Children, are being re-imagined
on Russian television with Russian char8
acters. Meanwhile, the Russian Orthodox Church, resurgent after decades of
oppression under the Soviets, is beginning to teach its tenets to public schoolchildren with the tacit approval of the
Russian government.
Buoyed by a wealth of natural resources, the Russian economic bubble has been
growing steadily. After the stagnant Yeltsin years, it is perhaps to be expected that
Russians will attribute their newfound
prosperity to their enigmatic president,
Vladimir Putin.
Putin enjoys considerable popularity among Russians, despite the inability of the Kremlin to curb corruption
across all levels of the Russian government. It is not difficult to imagine
why. Putin is fit and athletic, boasting
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a black belt in Judo and a propensity
for taking his shirt off while on fishing trips. As proven time and again in
the United States, the populace loves a
good dose of machismo in their world
leaders, and B-roll of Putin flipping an
opponent over and slamming him to
the mats in the dojo is perhaps the best
way to project an image of a strong,
aggressive Russia without sending the
rest of the West scrambling to climb
back into those Cold War-era nuclear
bunkers.
However, as reassuring as those images
of President Bush with Putin at the Bush
family compound in Kennebunkport may
have been, the time has come for the West
to start taking Russia seriously again.
Spurred on by fears of the declining
population of ethnic Russians, Russian nationalist groups have had several
particularly fruitful years of recruiting.
Most notable of these groups is Nashi
(“Ours” in Russian), a neo-fascistic
youth group that preaches xenophobia, jingoism, anti-Americanism, and a
fierce Russian nationalism. Nashi organizes concerts, camps and other group
activities for its members. Most jarring,
though, is the group’s cult-like worship
of Putin.
Like so many other troubling trends
in contemporary Russia, the Kremlin has
turned a blind eye on the aspects of Nashi
that are most antithetical to democracy—namely, the many ways in which
the Nashi of today resembles the HitlerJugend of 1930s Germany—and, perhaps
based on Nashi’s love of Putin, empowered
the group instead. In mid-September, brigades of Nashi members, trained by the
Moscow city police, began patrolling the
streets of the capital city, ostensibly to retain order. The fact that Nashi members
have been accused of attacking diplomats
and inciting mob violence doesn’t seem to
trouble the Kremlin a whit, however.
Despite the troubling legacy to which
Nashi appears heir, the United States will
soon have a bigger problem with U.S.Russian relations. An already-strong current of anti-Americanism has been growing steadily stronger in recent years. It has
been kept from affecting U.S.-Russian
Staff Illustration / Rayla Heide WC ‘10
POLITICS
relations to a large extent because of the
close personal friendship between the current President Bush and Putin. However,
as odds are good that a Democrat will win
the next election in the United States due
to fallout over the war in Iraq, and as the
next Russian president will likely be far
more anti-American than Putin himself
is, we stand to see U.S.-Russian relations
deteriorating even more precipitously in
coming years.
Putin’s obvious reluctance to make
any attempt to curb the xenophobia
and anti-Americanism in Russia is more
likely linked to his desire to retain his
popularity than to provide continued
stability for the Russian people. Further evidence that Putin is not bothered
by—and is perhaps even anticipating—
the temporary destabilization that will
result when he leaves office in March
can be found in his decision to replace
Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov with
the little-known Viktor Zubkov in early
September rather than with Sergei Iva-
nov or Dmitry Medvedev, two prominent deputy prime ministers whose
names have been bandied about heavily
as candidates for the presidency. Zubkov was a low-profile financial regulator
before being vaulted into the limelight
by Putin in September. Soon after his
nomination, Zubkov announced his intention to run for president.
Whoever Putin endorses in the next
presidential election is expected to win
handily, and the fact that no serious
candidate has stepped forward a mere
five months before the election is telling. Is this a case of insider baseball at
the Kremlin, or is Putin positioning
himself to endorse a puppet of a president and remain behind the scenes after
the Russian constitution forces him to
leave office this spring? Whatever the
case may be, the ultimate beneficiary
of such strategies will be Putin himself, and not the Russian people who
so worship him. While it is exceptionally unlikely that Putin will attempt to
circumvent the Russian constitution
and pursue another term in office, it
is far more likely that he will continue
to exert influence on the government
from the private sector, doing nothing
to curb the rampant corruption that he
claims to oppose.
While the ex-KGB, Judo master
president has a certain James Bondesque appeal, and while he has had the
good fortune to preside over Russia at
a time of great prosperity, change and
relative stability, the time is nigh for
Putin—and Russia—to decide which of
the two is more important.
Kristina Costa ’09 ([email protected])
knows her babushka from her babaghanoush.
Now just $4!
counterpoint
9
D I S PATC H E S
If You Give a Mouse Siberia...
{ by e.b. bartels}
S
The day after we left Logan, we spent a nine-hour layover in the Frankfurt airport.
Here, Pickles is enjoying the last fast food we would have for a month. Did you know
that in Germany they charge extra for condiments?
10
counterpoint
Staff Photos / EB Bartels ‘10
mack in the middle of Asia exists a crescent-shaped lake unknown
to most people on this side of the planet. But this lake, Baikal, is
“the soul of Siberia,” as described in the name of the Russian Area
Studies/Environmental Science course that brought me and 11 other
Wellesley students there for three and a half weeks this summer. Baikal
is the oldest (over 25 million years), the largest (by volume – containing
about one-fifth of the Earth’s freshwater) and the deepest (over a mile)
lake on the planet, and in some ways, Baikal is more like an ocean than
a lake with its freshwater seals and sponges. As a Russian major and a
Studio Art minor, I armed myself with a mediocre collection of Russian
vocabulary, my 35mm camera and enough Costco film to shoot one roll
a day. I also brought with me one comforting item from home – completely necessary when traveling across 13 time zones to the region in
which Russia used to exile its prisoners – a small stuffed rodent by the
name of Pickles, given to me by my grandmother a decade and a half ago.
Pickles makes an excellent travel companion due to his compact size, but
he seemed especially at home traveling through Russia, perhaps due to
the number of pickled foods we consumed in our time there.
After flying from Frankfurt to Yekaterinburg – the first large Siberian
city east of the Urals – we spent 12 hours sleeping off jetlag in our Soviet-era hotel and wandering the city. That night at 1 a.m. we boarded
the Trans-Siberian Railroad heading east. Our next two days blurred
into 50 hours of snacking and reading as we watched Siberia fly by the
train’s windows. Pickles takes one of the many “unintentional naps” that
we found ourselves slipping into when in our four-bunk cabins.
Much of our time on the train was spent eating. I even visited the
dining car to experience the romantic classic idea of clattering china
and white linens. The tablecloth turned out to be plastic, the flowers fake and the plates mismatched, but eating smoked salmon and
cheese on brown bread while traveling by rail through the middle of
Asia still felt like something out of a novel. Here is Pickles next to a
napkin holder printed with the Trans-Siberian Railway logo.
After five days of travel, we finally arrived on the shore of Lake Baikal in the village of Bol’shie Koty, where we would live for three weeks. Pickles is
on the rocky beach on our first night in the village, still a little jetlagged and confused at how this massive body of water couldn’t be the ocean.
11
counterpoint
A couple of times during our stay in Bol’shie Koty, we would
have group bonfires at a site on the side of a large hill overlooking the village. Pickles is looking a little fuzzy at left—maybe a
little too much vodka?
We spent most of the last week of our time on Baikal literally on
Baikal. On our five-day boat excursion we visited Olkhon Island
(legendary burial site of Genghis Khan), the sulfur-stinking hot
springs at Snake Cove and the nerpas (Baikal’s freshwater seals)
at their breeding grounds at the Ushkany Islands. Below, Pickles
is enjoying Fert Cove on our last morning of the excursion before heading home.
Staff Photos / EB Bartels ‘10
E.B. Bartels ’10 ([email protected]) can no longer stand the sight of beets.
12
counterpoint
A R T S & C U LT U R E
Come Together
Uniting generations through music
in the new film Across the Universe
{ by kara hadge}
T
he Beatles. New York’s East Village.
Anti-war protests. Love fests and
road trip fantasias. These touchstones of the 1960s define Across the Universe, a 131-minute musical extravaganza
directed by Julie Taymoor. The film is a love
song to a bygone era that tells the comingof-age of an earlier generation through music that transcends decades and continents.
The cast’s renditions of universal Beatles
tunes pay tribute to the passion, creativity,
liberality and keen sense of social responsibility in an unjust world that were endemic
to the ’60s and leave your mind reeling as
you watch the story unfold.
Or maybe it’s the LSD-influenced montages that create that psychedelic effect.
Whatever the cause, the effect is brilliant.
Across the Universe tells the story of a
dockhand from Liverpool, Jude, who comes
to the U.S. in the 1960s to find his father, a
janitor at Princeton University, and instead
finds love and revolution. At Princeton,
Jude meets Max, a student whose sole pursuit seems to be perfecting his golf swing
from the roofs of various campus buildings.
When Max decides to drop out, he and Jude
head for New York and move into an apartment inhabited by the free spirits they aspire
to become. Their landlady is Sadie, a singer,
and their roommates are as diverse a cast of
characters as anyone could imagine. They are
soon joined by Prudence, an Asian-American
girl from Dayton, Ohio, who does not fit in
the Midwestern cornfields, and JoJo from
Detroit, who leaves following the 1967 riot.
After graduating from high school, Max’s sister Lucy also moves to New York with them
and becomes an anti-war activist, and Jude
quickly falls for her. The characters, several of
whose names are drawn from Beatles songs,
lumbia University student riots, which do,
unsurprisingly, cause a life-changing rift in
Jude’s world.
The emotional impact of the Columbia
riot scene is an interesting contrast to the
general apathy of today’s college students
and twenty-somethings. Across the Universe is
driven by the sense that Jude, Max, Lucy and
their peers are on a quest to do something
that matters, to experience life more fully or
to enter their adult lives through some sort
of trial-by-fire by breaking ties with the relative security of their childhood experiences.
When Max first meets Jude at Princeton, he
greets him with the words, “Welcome to the
nursery.” Part of growing up in this context
is to leave behind the establishment and feel
the influences of pop culture and the media. Today’s media does little to encourage
a sense of radicalism, but in the ’60s, the
novelty of broadcasting war footage on television brought war into the American living
room and influenced citizens’ responses to
the war. When antiwar activist Paco installs
a television in Lucy and Jude’s kitchen, Jude
are all ’60s archetypes; the structure of the
film does not allow for much character development, but they are individual enough
to connect with the viewer.
The film is most successful at weaving
together the generic storyline through an extensive soundtrack of Beatles singles, which,
of course, were not all intended to function
together as a soundtrack but do so very well
here. The Detroit riot scene is one of the first
break-out musical moments of the movie:
an African-American gospel choir sings “Let
It Be” in the midst of
The film is driven by the characters’ quest
the chaos and police
brutality that segue
to do something that matters, to experience
into the funeral of
life more fully and to enter their adult lives
a little boy killed in
by breaking ties with the relative security of
the melee. Historical
events are presented
their childhood experiences.
loosely chronologically to bring the
characters together, and this one
serves as the cause for JoJo’s flight to New flies into a rage because it brings the war
York. As JoJo comments shortly after arriv- into his personal space—in particular, in
ing in the East Village, “Music’s the only the room where he works on his art. His rething that makes sense anymore.” This is the sponse is a creative overture involving flying
modus operandi that drives the film through red paint and rows of lusciously red strawberries pierced onto a canvas on the wall by
a series of loosely-linked conflicts.
Often the musical numbers give the pins, as he sings “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
whole film the feeling of a gratuitously long The overall effect is that Jude realizes he
music video, but overall, the format works. cannot hide from the turmoil around him.
The choreographed dance numbers are The audience cannot help but be drawn in,
amazing—beginning with a sock-hop style whatever their age, and this is why Across
high school dance that is reworked later in a the Universe is worthwhile: it turns some of
similar concept in a chilling, assembly-line- the last century’s greatest pop songs into the
style scene at the military inspection center voice of a generation that still resonates dewhen Max is drafted. Another beautifully- cades later.
crafted transition between scenes involves
“Across the Universe,” as Jude’s lovelorn Kara Hadge ’08 ([email protected]) is
rendition of the line, “Nothing’s gonna sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van
change my world,” fades into the 1968 Co- to come.
{
counterpoint
}
13
A R T S & C U LT U R E
“Don’t Tase Me, Bro”
How YouTube and video phones
commodify violence
{ by veronica cole}
L
ast November, an act of unfathomable brutality stunned the entire
collegiate community. When 23year-old UCLA student Mostafa Tabatabainejad failed to produce proper identification during a routine check in the
school’s library, police officers stunned
him with a Taser multiple times, in what
appeared to be a vicious abuse of power.
In the aftermath of the incident, over one
million Americans sat huddled around
computer screens, watching that infamous six-minute YouTube video – courtesy of a bystander’s camera phone – of
the horrific incident. Watching the video,
one could see Tabatabainejad flailing and
hear his pleas for the officers to stop,
trying to explain to them that he had a
medical condition. The most harrowing
elements of the scene were his screams:
“Here’s your PATRIOT Act! Here’s your
(expletive) abuse of power!”
As talk of racial profiling (Tabatabainejad is Iranian-American) and police
brutality spread, we wondered how such
a horrible act could haunt the college
campuses at which we otherwise feel—or
are supposed to feel, anyway—so safe. We
assured ourselves that it would never happen again.
But on September 17, 2007, it did happen again. During a speech by John Kerry
at the University of Florida, 21-year-old
senior Andrew Meyer rushed to address
the senator after a moderator announced
that no more questions would be taken.
After speaking for a minute and a half,
Meyer’s microphone was turned off, and
police began to escort him away. Senator
Kerry responded to the officers, “That’s all
right, let me answer his question.”
However, the officers persisted in their
attempt to pull Meyer toward the exit.
Meyer protested and struggled, announcing, “I want to stand and listen to the
answers to my questions,” and eventually
fought his way back to the stage—but
he was dragged away, wrestled to the
ground and handcuffed. When he asked
to be allowed to leave, police threatened
to restrain him with a Taser—and they
did. Meyer spent the night in jail, and the
cops were placed on administrative leave,
pending an investigation, immediately
following the incident.
We, as college students and citizens,
have a right to know why incidents like
these occur. The thought of a student
being stunned by a Taser is frankly horrifying—these incidents remind us of our
As alternative media sources like YouTube grow increasingly
popular, the content available on the websites in question
becomes more diverse, inventive, sophisticated and, in some
cases, disturbing. This article and the one following it profile
two very different forms taken by videos on YouTube.com.
14
counterpoint
utter powerlessness over authority; they
present us with some of the most disconcerting examples of our vulnerability to
abuse.
However, just as we have a right to
ask why our fellow students are abused,
there is one question that should be asked
of us: why are we so eager to see our fellow students abused? Both this incident
and the one that occurred last November
were videotaped by bystanders, the videos
later reposted on YouTube. Almost instantly after news of the incident broke,
Meyer’s plea to the police – “Don’t Tase
me, bro!” – could be seen and heard all
over the Internet. This phrase was unfortunately catchy, and it became suddenly
ubiquitous. A friend of Meyer’s remixed
the sound byte to a hip-hop beat and put
the 44-second clip on YouTube in the
background of a video of the incident. At
press time, the video has been viewed on
YouTube over 100,000 times.
As with the incident at UCLA, the
presence of these videos on YouTube allowed us to see, albeit through a blurry
lens, what actually occurred. It must be
asked, though, why we need to see these
horrors first-hand. That a YouTube video
of such an awful incident is necessary to
our understanding of it, that we honestly
need to experience the visceral reaction
elicited by seeing a student being dragged
out of an auditorium and stunned in order to know or care that it happened, represents, perhaps, a truly sad testimony to
our inability to relate to these events. The
videos themselves, in that they are so horrifying, are quite difficult to watch—and
yet we would rather watch them than
read the news. Shouldn’t reading an article about such an incident be sufficient
to convince us of its injustice?
Maybe we’re not entirely convinced.
Just days after the incident, its originally
profound impact was dampened by talk
that Meyer sought the attention provided
by his mistreatment by the police. According to CNN, there are some who reported that Meyer asked a woman if she
was taping him before heading to the microphone; officers said that his demeanor
changed once the cameras were off of
him, and that he was laughing on the way
to the police station. These facts may or
may not be true, but they are completely
irrelevant to the actual issue: that using a
Taser to stun a student, who intends no
physical harm to anyone, is an egregious
abuse of power.
The worst consequence of these videos’
YouTube-legend status is that they, somewhat paradoxically, distract us from this
fact. The availability of live-action footage of the incident allows us to watch it,
be appalled by it and get over it, all in a
matter of minutes. The YouTube video of
Meyer—both the original recording and
the “remixed” one—might desensitize
us to the horrific nature of the incident
and runs the risk of turning his experience into a commodity or, worse, a joke.
Just as some viewers did with the video
of Tabatabainejad’s brutal treatment by
the UCLA officers, some might watch the
video of Meyer, say, “Wow, that’s messed
up,” and instantly look at something else.
On the other hand, we could choose
to see the videos of Tabatabainejad and
Meyer as particularly stunning examples
of citizen journalism. The student to
whom Meyer allegedly handed the camera before approaching the podium, Clarissa Jessup, was the one who posted the
video to YouTube and sent it into CNN.
According to Washington Post columnist
Howard Kurtz, Jessup claims to have sent
the video to a major news source because
she “wanted national attention.”
The phenomenon of citizens disseminating newsworthy information—
through a variety of media—has become
increasingly common. With the advent
of blogs and YouTube, in addition to the
more widespread use of video-phones and
similar devices, suddenly everyone has the
wherewithal to be a journalist. Perhaps,
one might argue, this shift is empowering
to those of us not hired by major news
outlets: perhaps it means that we all have
the power to make our voices heard in a
more meaningful way. After all, one might
argue that these videos’ YouTube fame
helped word spread about the incidents.
Whether we like to admit it or not, many
of us might not have even been aware that
such acts happened without the videos to
prove it.
In this vein, though, we must ask:
have the same instruments that allow us
to become producers of news media made
us less discerning consumers of it? Simply put, it takes very little effort to watch
the videos of Tabatabainejad and Meyer
– we don’t have to think critically about
the issues at hand, which makes it particularly easy to forget them. Even more
unsettling to think about is the possibility
that videos such as these can allow us to
harbor the illusion that we are consuming
news when, in actuality, we are partaking
in some morbid form of entertainment.
Conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck,
on the September 19 edition of his CNN
Headline News show, declared “Taser videos are a little like potato chips. I just can’t
watch just one.”
While Beck’s response to the videos
might seem alarmingly insensitive, it’s
probably not as uncommon as we would
like to think. A shaky video or blurry
photograph possesses one unique aspect
that differentiates it from, say, an article
in the New York Times: it speaks for itself,
and is thus open to a remarkable level of
subjectivity. There is no professional filter
in front of the pieces of media that have
become examples of citizen journalism
– they are, perhaps, the most unadulterated, real examples of news that we could
possibly hope to access, and there are no
expectations placed on our responses to
them. One person could see a video of a
student being Tasered and take it as news;
another could gather a group of friends
around the computer to watch the video
for entertainment. After all, what do we
counterpoint
make of the “remix” of Meyer’s cries, supposedly put on the Internet by his friend?
What are they, if not an attempt at entertainment?
As the line between producers and
consumers of news becomes increasingly
blurred, one can no longer place the onus
on news media to keep us informed; we
must maintain the utmost responsibility
in informing ourselves. Videos of students
being Tasered might represent some of the
most disconcerting reminders of this responsibility. The visceral effect they have
on us makes it all too easy to mistake a
knee-jerk response – be it disgust, sympathy, anger, or even entertainment – for
actual information. We can watch the
videos on YouTube, but if we truly care
about the issues at hand, then we should
also be willing to pick up a newspaper and
read about them. If we can’t exert the effort it takes to stay informed about these
injustices, then we have no rightful place
to protest if—when—they happen again.
Veronica Cole ’09 ([email protected]) does not
spend time watching YouTube when she should be
doing her homework, no, sir!
15
A R T S & C U LT U R E
The Not-So-Lonely
World of Lonelygirl15
{ by jane repetti}
I
n June 2006, a sheepish 16-year-old
named Bree posted her first video
blog on YouTube. She was a quirky,
physics-loving home-schooler with large
brown eyes and impish good looks. In addition to being home-schooled, Bree’s social isolation was increased by a childhood
characterized by frequent moves and a
stint on a religious commune, resulting in
a lonely world consisting of her stuffed animals and her sole human friend, Daniel.
Because she had previously posted clever
video commentaries on the most popular
YouTube videos of the time, thousands
viewed her first blog. Her strict parents
and her religion kept her trapped in her
room most of time, and her Rapunzel-like
charm eventually entranced millions. In
early September 2006, she revealed that
she had been selected to participate in a
mysterious religious ceremony, which required extensive preparation, including a
special diet and injections of an unknown
substance. Viewers, myself included, continued to watch as Bree released video
{
were developing a story arc. At this point,
the ranks of skeptics had widened to include Virginia Heffernan of the New York
Times. It was Heffernan who broke the
news that a group of hackers had traced
Bree’s IP address to the Creative Artists’
Agency in Los Angeles. It was also discovered that www.lonelygirl15.com had
been registered before the first video was
posted. How could the fan site predate
the blogs?
Initially, there was outrage amongst
the viewers, many of whom had offered
Bree advice via blog comments and emails for what they had believed were her
very real problems. The media exposure
generated a surge of short-lived interest
that was largely based on the curiosity
factor. What were these videos whose entire popularity was based on an arguably
unethical deception? When Lonelygirl’s
creators finally released a public statement, the feelings of some viewers shifted
from anger and surface curiosity to deeper
intrigue. The Creators (as they refer to
Also, real or not, they couldn’t help
being concerned for her: what was this
creepy religious ceremony, and what,
exactly, was she being injected with?
blogs every few days.
Rumors had been swirling for some
time that Bree was a paid actress and that
Lonelygirl15 was just a promotion for a
future movie or television show. The editing was a little too slick and her videos
16
}
themselves on Lonelygirl message boards)
emphasized that although they had hired
the Creative Artists’ Agency to represent
them, they had no ties to Hollywood or
any large corporations. They explained
that they were filmmakers experiment-
counterpoint
ing with a new interactive medium. They
stressed that viewer participation was a
vital part of the series and that their input would shape the plot. Viewers were
encouraged to post comments and videos
and to help solve the mysteries and puzzles in the story-- there would be codes
to break, drops (physical clues planted in
real-life locations for viewers to find) and
occasionally live on-location shoots in
which fans could take part.
The Creators’ sentiments proved true
when they offered their full support to
the unofficial, fan-generated spin-off series
that began to appear. To me, this seemed
like an intriguing new idea. If the creators
maintained the quality of the plot and kept
the blog format, this could be an exciting
new medium that blurred the lines both
between reality and fiction and between
creator and viewer. It was an active rather
than passive form of entertainment. But,
in truth, some viewers continued watching
because they were attached to Bree--even if
she was just a character. Who wouldn’t love
a girl who devoted an entire blog to topics such as helping Pluto adjust to his new
non-planet status or the Tolstoy Principle?
Also, real or not, they couldn’t help being
concerned for her; what was this creepy
religious ceremony, and what, exactly, was
she being injected with?
The Creators were Miles Beckett, a
medical school dropout, Mesh Flinders, a
writer, and husband and wife lawyer team,
Greg and Amanda Goodfried. According
to www.lonelygirl15.com, Beckett was inspired to create an interactive web-series after realizing that video blogs were the most
popular “original content” on YouTube.
According to an article in the December
2006 issue of Wired magazine, Flinders
had created the character of Bree several
years ago. He, like Bree, had spent time on
a commune with his parents, and had often
felt lonely during his childhood. Bree was,
in some ways, his alter-ego. When Beckett
and Flinders met at a party in early 2006,
Lonelygirl15 was born. The Goodfrieds
joined the team as Beckett and Flinders’
legal counsel. Beckett and Flinders were
concerned about the legality of their plan,
which involved deceiving the public into
thinking that Bree was real and even go-
YouTube.com
ing so far as to answer emails in character.
According to lonelygirl15.com, they soon
took on writing and producing roles as
well. The outing of Lonelygirl was a major
boon to the actors, who had initially been
unpaid and were bound to strict non-disclosure agreements. Jessica Lee Rose (Bree)
gained instant stardom. She quickly landed
a small role in the ill-fated Lindsay Lohan
movie I Know Who Killed Me and a recurring role on the ABC Family show Greek.
Yousef Abu-Taleb (Daniel) began a weekly
radio show.
In early winter 2006, the creators attempted to gain mass appeal by adding…
well, hot people. Jessica Lee Rose, though
very pretty, is not quite Halle Berry, and
Yousef Abu-Taleb (Daniel), though extremely charismatic, is not conventionally handsome, either. So another blogger,
Jonas, an Abercrombie-esque Adonis, was
added as a third main character. While
lovely to look at, Jonas is only capable of
exhibiting two emotions: sullen or angry.
Katherine McPhee of American Idol fame
made a cameo appearance and her single
was used in the episode. Prior to this incident, the show had used mostly indie or
web-based musicians for its soundtrack,
and no celebrities had appeared onscreen.
By 2007, the blog format, which had
been the entire premise for the series, was
only weakly adhered to, and the storyline
veered into the territory of the ridiculous. Bree’s religion, idiotically titled The
Hymn of One, is exposed to be both a
cover and recruiting arm for some kind
of evil secret society known as The Order
of Denderah, a.ka. The Order. The Order
uses certain “trait positive” girls like Bree
who possess unusually high levels of ribozymes to conduct experiments concerning
the prevention and reversal of aging. The
“ceremony” is really just an experiment
involving the blood of a “trait positive”
girl. Since Bree is unwilling to participate,
the Order is pursuing her.
The creators struggled to find a way to
make Lonelygirl15 profitable without sacrificing their creative control and independence. Ultimately, the creators polled fans
about including product placement in the
videos. A majority approved of the idea,
and Icebreakers Sours Gum and Neutrogena entered the “Breeniverse.” In July
2007, the first “official” Lonelygirl spin-off
series, KateModern, was introduced. KateModern, which follows the adventures of a
counterpoint
“trait positive” young woman in London,
was specifically created for the net-working site Bebo.com. This is quite different
from the origins of Lonelygirl. Although
Lonelygirl debuted on YouTube, it was not
funded by or affiliated with the website.
It was a purely independent enterprise.
Flinders and Beckett have left Lonelygirl
primarily in the hands of new employees
while they work on KateModern. Though
they have total creative control of KateModern and still supervise Lonelygirl, this
step was viewed by many as an unforgivable corporate sell-out. The Creators issued a statement claiming that their vision
is to create an international community of
interconnected web-series, and that their
partnership with Bebo would help accomplish this. Many fans found this statement
unsatisfactory—had the Creators forgotten about their original promise of independence from large corporations?
Amidst all this uproar the first season
of Lonelygirl15 finally came to an end.
The finale entailed live shoots with fan involvement, but it was all in vain because
on August 3, 2007, Bree was killed as her
ribozyme-rich blood was transfused into
an elderly Order member. Bree, angelic
to the end, had willingly sacrificed herself, hoping that the Order would stop
pursuing her friends. Lonelygirl herself
was dead. Any continuing story would
be a soulless attempt at continuing an
enterprise. The series has gone on without her with an absurd storyline centering on a secret resistance movement, and
the possibility of supernatural powers in
“trait positive” girls. It’s all just too much
for veteran Lonelygirl fans to bear and yet
most continue watching. I can offer no explanation as to why. In light of all of this
I have a confession to make: when Bree
died, I wept. I wept both because my beloved character had sacrificed herself, and
because the series, rather than being an
innovative form of active entertainment,
had become little more than a promotion
for a net-working website.
Jane Repetti ’09 ([email protected]) can
picture herself in a boat on a river with tangerine
trees and marmalade skies.
17
A S K T H E B E AV E R
Beaver’s Back!
Counterpoint’s own anonymous sex and dating columnist tackles
scientologists, lesbian roommates and anal sex. Oh, my!
{ by the beaver}
Dear Beaver,
Last spring, I broke up with my longterm boyfriend. I thought that I would never find love again. Last week, I went on a
date with a guy I met at a party a couple of
weeks ago. He is funny and smart, and we
really hit it off. There’s one problem, though.
Over dinner, he told me that he was a recent
convert to Scientology. I thought that this
was another one of his jokes, so I laughed. It
turns out that he was serious! Not only do I
think that Scientology is a fraud, and putting aside any and all Tom Cruise jokes that
may come to mind, I’m a thesising senior
psychology major! Our colliding differences
made for an awkward dessert course, but
I had such a hard time finding anyone to
date even casually after my boyfriend and I
split up. Do you think there is any way for
us to reconcile our differences?
Analytically yours,
Fond of Freud
Hi Fond,
I see your dilemma; I would probably
have difficulty dating a Scientologist as
well, but your query got me thinking and I
decided to look into the faith to see what I
could find. Apparently, Scientology is more
a collection of beliefs that encourages people to find their “true” selves in order to improve their lives. It is all about advancement
of one’s self, and you’ll be happy to know
that despite the church’s denouncement of
psychology, the theories of Sigmund Freud,
Carl Jung and William Sargant contributed to its conception. Some of it is even
considered a quasi-religious therapy that resembles Freudian depth psychology. Don’t
worry, I’m not trying to convert you, nor
am I any closer to converting myself, but
it’s important to understand Scientology
18
before writing it off completely just because
Tom Cruise decided to do some jumping
jacks on Oprah’s sofa or because the South
Park episode about it is hilarious.
Speaking of understanding it, why don’t
you ask him about his beliefs? Not everyone
in a certain religion believes every dictum, so
maybe you’re lucky and he is one of the sane
ones! And maybe he can explain why Scientology appeals to him. He might have a good reason, such as an alternative to psychiatric help.
As a last resort, I think one thing that’s
good to remember in these situations is
that denial is always an option. Nothing is
forcing you to discuss his religion, or yours,
for that matter. You claim that you really
like this guy, that you’ve hit it off splendidly, so why give that up when you have been
looking for someone special for so long?
Are his beliefs going to get in the way of
normal interaction for you? Will he be saying grace to Xenu before you commence
a meal? If not, there are plenty of alternatives to conversation than religion, and it
is pretty easily avoided. I recommend you
give this guy a chance, more than the one
date, to see if you could be together seriously since dismissing him solely because
of his beliefs seems a waste.
Do tread carefully though; you don’t
want to end up like Katie Holmes.
Dear Beav,
I am a first year at Wellesley, and I really
like it so far. However, I think my roommate
is a lesbian. I know that homosexuality is
wrong, but she’s so nice and we’ve had a really good time together so far. How should I
deal with this awkward situation?
Questioningly,
Straight in Shafer
counterpoint
Hello Straight,
If you don’t mind, let me pose a few
questions to you to get a grasp of the situation. Does your roommate have pictures
of lots of hot women on her wall, partially
nude or otherwise? Have you seen her
reading Rita May Brown or Jeanette Winterson novels? Does she listen to Melissa
Etheridge or Feist? Has she cut her hair
into the “Wellesley Chop”? Does she have
a lot of piercings, or maybe a choice few,
such as a lip ring? Or, the biggest indicator: have you walked in on her with another girl? If you’ve answered yes to a few
of these questions, your roommate may
indeed be gay. She isn’t, however, evil. [If
only one of these is true (except if it’s the
last one), then you’re probably just projecting your own homosexual desires onto
her! Congratulations, YOU’RE gay. ]
Also, don’t presume that she’s attracted
to you. Just because she’s gay doesn’t mean
she wants to get with you. For all I know
you’re some deformed freak who looks like
she stepped out of a Picasso painting and has
grown a tail. Maybe she dry heaves when she
sees you naked. If so, the chances are pretty
low that she wants to bone you. It’s only an
awkward situation if you make it one. And
who knows how long you guys will continue
to hang out anyway? It’s only fall semester
your first year. She may just be acting kind
until she can get some real les-be-friends.
Dear Beav,
I’ve been dating my girlfriend for a while
now, and our sex life is great. Lately, we’ve
been talking about trying anal. She’s really
into the idea; I’m less sure. I really don’t
want to hurt her and I’ve never had anal
sex, so I don’t know how hard is too hard
and so on. Do you have any advice for painfree first-time anal sex?
Concerned,
Anxious About Anal
Hi AAA,
I’m guessing you’re a man, but even if
you’re a woman, the same advice will apply.
First of all, BE HAPPY that she’s really into
the idea of anal sex. Most guys have to coax
their partners into even considering it, so
feel lucky and thankful because it will actually help when it comes to the physical act.
[For girls considering it, but unsure of
the probability that they’ll enjoy anal sex: it
can be just as pleasurable as vaginal, if not
more, because although there isn’t direct
clit stimulation, there is internal clit action.
Your g-spot is the back of the clit inside your
vaginal walls and it can be accessed through
the back door too. Also, your vagina and
your anus have a figure eight of nerves surrounding them, so anal sex can often access
those nerves that vaginal cannot.]
In terms of concern for your girlfriend:
think of your own ass. If you wouldn’t like
something being done to it, then she probably wouldn’t like it either. Would you like
it if someone excitedly stuck a (generouslyestimated) 6-inch cylinder up your ass all
at once? Then she probably wouldn’t, either. You get the idea? Only do what you
wouldn’t mind being done to your own ass.
(Assuming you would like anal yourself—
but that’s for another column!)
The fact that your girlfriend is more than
willing is great. The more relaxed she is, the
easier it will be to have a successful, painfree first time. But just because she’s willing
doesn’t mean she’s completely ready. Usually
if a woman has had a few orgasms already,
her asshole will be loosened a bit and more
willing to stretch, so on that special night in
the near future, do everything she likes and
make her cum again and again.
If you don’t usually touch her ass, make
sure you do so now! Do some rimming (licking the anus), and finger her a little. Don’t
ram your thumb up there, but play with her
ass and gently push a finger (and if she’s into
it, two) inside. You also want to make sure
that your finger is lubed up. You can also
try to finger her ass while you have sex vaginally. This gets her used to the feeling of you
inside her in multiple places, and this combination is known for its explosive orgasmic
opportunities. Some people also find having
sex with a butt plug in to be extremely pleasurable, and this can help to loosen up her
ass for when you penetrate it.
When you’re actually ready to have
anal, you need to first and foremost be
lubed up. Like I said before, lube is a necessity for a good time. I also suggest a
condom, even if you don’t regularly use
them, because it will help with added
smoothness and lubrication. Quite likely,
your spit or her cum will not be enough,
so invest in a bottle of KY. Don’t dump
the whole bottle on yourselves, but be
generous, and apply some to her (around
and even inside her ass a little is preferable) as well as yourself. Don’t make it
a chore; you’re playing with each other
already (especially you with her ass!) so
make it part of the fun.
Have her get into whatever position
makes her most comfortable, and then enter
her a little bit at a time. Try going in about
an inch, and then pull almost completely
out, and then back in a tiny bit more than
the first time, and then pull back again, but
a little less. Continue like this until you can
get your penis in all the way with no problems. During this back and forth however,
listen to her! If she is in pain or she asks you
to stop, do what she asks immediately. Even
if you thought it was going perfectly, just listen to her and do what she says. Remember,
it’s her ass you’re dealing with, so respect it
like you would your own.
Once you’re done, pull out and give
her a chance to recover. She may be a bit
flustered. She may have just had the best
orgasm of her life. Give her a minute.
A few last minute tips:
1. It shouldn’t hurt. If it does, stop and
try again.
2. Never go ass to vagina with fingers
or your penis. The other way is fine, but
otherwise it can lead to bad infections for
her. Use multiple condoms and designate
certain fingers for certain holes if you
need to. Your girlfriend will be mad if she
gets an infection, and she’ll be unlikely to
sleep with you again soon.
3. Don’t forget about her clit! I know
you’re excited about being in her ass, but
she’ll probably like the experience even more
if you play with her clit and finger her vagina
as well. Double penetration might be the
most amazing thing she’s never experienced.
4. Listen to her. Whatever she says
goes. If she tells you to stop doing something, then stop. If she tells you to go
harder, do it. You won’t break her. Just
make sure she’ll tell you if it hurts.
Good luck and have fun!
The Beaver is Counterpoint’s anonymous monthly
sex and dating advice columnist.
counterpoint
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19
CAMPUS LIFE
Traffic Tends to Come
from the Right
And other absurdities from across the pond
{ by jenny kim}
O
ctober often feels like the busiest point of the semester, but
while most of us trudge through
our daily routine of classes, the fortunate
are busy preparing for something a little
more exciting: a semester or year studying
abroad. Whether to study a language, immerse yourselves in a new culture or simply get away from Boston, many of you
will opt to take your studies overseas. The
prospect of going abroad can be very exciting—a light at the end of the tunnel of
the sophomore slump—but like any good
escape, it requires planning.
All of this planning can make you feel
like you are digging your way out of jail
with a spoon, so before you prepare to set
off into unknown territory, I would like
to proffer
a few tidbits of advice that I wish I had
known before I went overseas.
As a junior, I chose to go to the School
of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at
the University of London not just for its
unique classes in Asian and African studies, but also for its central location in the
heart of London. This would be my first
time living far away from home, so I was
quite excited. When September finally
rolled around, I giddily packed my bag,
got on the plane and flew to London in
the hopes that I’d be spending an awesome
semester in a destination where the word
“fun” hadn’t lost its original meaning.
The first week in London was fabulous, for lack of a better word. Students
go through hours and hours of orientation that deal with everything from culture shock and time management to safety
issues. I strongly recommend students do
20
not attend these as they are a waste of precious time. Actually, I take that back. It
might be a good idea to attend the ones
dealing with class registration.
Once classes began, however, things
got a bit more interesting, as I slowly got
used to daily life in London. Though experiences will differ from person to person, here are a few things one should expect as a student living in the UK for the
first time.
Drinking with British students is
nothing like getting trashed with your
fellow Americans back at home. For one,
they rarely get wasted enough to end up
crawling on the floor as most of us are
used to. So if you’re planning on spending a night carousing with your fellow
Brits, go easy on the alcohol. Also, beware
that ale, which is what you’ll most likely
be drinking in pubs, has a higher alcohol
content than what we’re used to drinking
back here. Take heed.
Get used to the exchange rate. Unless something drastic happens, thereby
leading to the weakening of the GBP to
the USD (I highly doubt it), your dollar is going to be worth half as much
as the pound. Get that into your head.
Better yet, before you leave for London,
work that into your budget. Say you have
$5,000 for the semester. In your brain,
just halve that amount down to £2,500
because that’s what it’ll be worth once you
land in Heathrow.
Don’t be offended when someone asks
where you’re “really from.” As an Asian
American, I’d often get asked this age-old
question. It almost seemed unavoidable.
Introductions between me and other Eu-
counterpoint
ropean students would usually go as follows:
Person A: “Hi. My name is so-andso.”
Me: “Hi. I’m Jenny. Nice to meet
you.”
Person A: “So…where are you from?”
Me: “I’m from Boston.”
Person A, after a brief pause and a
weird look, leans in closer and whispers: “No…Where are you really from?
’Cause…you don’t look American.”
After the fifteenth time of being asked
this question, I decided to have some fun.
I once told someone that I was a North
Korean refugee who escaped by hiding in
a shrimp boat, and had spent a good three
months out in the Pacific scavenging on
shrimp shells before finally landing in the
glorious harbors of Boston. I think he believed me because he didn’t ask anymore
questions after that.
Don’t scare your British friends by
doing what we Americans love to do:
complaining. Trust me when I say this:
the British are petrified of expressing discontent to others. For example, say that
you are at a restaurant and the service is
sub par. The first thing most Americans
would do is call the waitress and demand
to speak to the manager. So you’d assume
that the British would do the same right?
Not so much. Complaining to the store
manager in front of your British friends is
a sure way to scare off not just the person
in charge but your local friends as well.
All this, however, does not necessarily mean that you should have misgivings
about studying abroad in another country. In general, going abroad can be a great
experience, and I would highly encourage
students to go. The friends one makes
with the local students and the experience
of living in another culture far outweigh
the few negative aspects that might entail.
I promise. So get ready, pack those bags,
and prepare for what is sure to be one
of the greatest adventures of your young
life.
Jenny Kim ’08 ([email protected]) is dancing
with herself, oh-oh-oh-oh.
CAMPUS LIFE
First-Year, Meet Frat
Wendies and MIT rush. What could possibly go wrong?
{ by elana altman}
W
ow, so I really messed up, I
thought as I took my seat on
the bus, en route to my first
MIT frat party on my first Wellesley weekend. Why on earth had I ever thought applying early decision to an all-girl’s school
in the suburbs was a good idea?
The admissions staff’s constant reminders that “Wellesley is only twelve
miles to Boston!”—overlooking, of
course, that it still takes 30 minutes to
an hour to get there—popped into my
mind. I sighed and decided I might as
well use the bus ride to make friends with
the girl sitting next to me.
“Hi! What’s your name?” I asked. She
answered, and from there the typical orientation quiz followed: Where are you
from? What dorm are you in? What are
your classes? Are you going to the same
black light party the other 40 of us are
headed to? By now, every response had
become scripted, from trying to find
good points about being stuck on the
East Side or in a dorm with the tiniest
rooms on campus (“Oh, I hear Munger
has such nice community!”) to trying
(and failing) to be witty about the cold
Boston weather (“You’re from California?
Hope you bought snow boots!”)
The conversation ran its course and
the typical awkward silence followed. I
returned to contemplating the question
of what I was doing on an overcrowded
bus with 40 other girls dressed in their
lowest-cut tank tops or shortest skirts, all
so we could mix and mingle with the opposite sex for the first time in a week.
Whatever, I tried to tell myself. Don’t
think about it that way. Just think that in
40 minutes—or an hour—or however long
it takes to get to MIT—you’ll be dancing in
a dark, crowded room to too-loud music,
and you’ll be so lost in just having a good
time you’ll have forgotten all of this.
Assuming I actually found the frat. I
didn’t have the faintest idea where I was
going; I just knew to get off at the Commonwealth Ave. stop, and I hoped I could
follow someone from there. My friends
were similarly clueless. Maybe the one
with directions was one of the many in
our group who got stranded at the Lulu
because they couldn’t squeeze their way
through the door to score the hottest ticket in town: a ride on the 9:00 bus.
Eventually, we reached the frat house,
and the confused looks on the brothers’
faces made it clear that whoever had forwarded the e-mail regarding the party to the
first-years had neglected to mention she had
done so to the brothers; they were not expecting forty Wellesley girls to turn up that
night. Unsure what to do, almost ready to
turn back, we were saved by one of our older
Wellesley sisters, already at the party.
“You girls from Wellesley?” she said,
“Come right up.” We followed her up, up,
up, to the attic room where the party was. It
was small but not particularly crowded.
“It’s a t-shirt and highlighter party,” she
told us knowingly after scanning the rainbow
of tank tops we had on. “Don’t worry about it
though; I’ll go get you some shirts.”
She came back with a pile of XXL plain
white t-shirts and highlighters.
We exchanged sarcastic “oh-we’re-goingto-look-so-hot-in-these” glances but ultimately put on the shirts. We were, after all,
just some ignorant little first-years, and she
was a seasoned Wellesley upperclasswoman.
Our shirts on, we eagerly grabbed the
highlighters and pulled off their caps. But
then we froze; we had no idea what to
draw or write. After minutes of standing
around helpless, our creativity eventually
counterpoint
lead us to doodling tiny hearts and flowers
on each other. The frat boys decided we
needed some help (they were clearly right)
and so they started drawing on us. When
they finished, we had that same awkward
silence we had every time we had finished
one of those orientation conversations.
We started dancing, and once we
loosened up, a lot of us started to actually have fun. The guys, though, seemed
to stay away. At one point, a Wellesley
upperclasswoman came over and asked
us who wanted a boy to dance with; we
raised our hands and she counted the correct number to bring over. I was, apparently, in sixth grade again, and everything
had to be done through a mediator, as
boys and girls were too scared to actually
talk to each other. Maybe next time I have
a crush I’ll ask him out with a note and
tell him to circle “yes” or “no.”
“Shit! I think the last bus leaves in 10
minutes!” one of my friends exclaimed.
Mass hysteria and confusion ensued; there
were disputes over when the last bus was
leaving. Some chose not to chance it and
left right away; others of us stayed.
Staying, however, proved useless, as apparently Boston parties end at midnight.
One of the brothers offered to take us to
another frat. We followed and during the
walk had our first real conversation with
any of the brothers. He was nice, but understandably unsure of what to do with
the plethora of girls he now had following
him down Beacon Street.
Unsure what to do, stuck in a city where
nothing stays open very late, we headed
back to the bus stop, where we found a
mass of others. I have no idea how long we
stood waiting in the cold; the time didn’t
pass too slowly because we were having
fun bemoaning the frustrations of meeting
guys and the need to be “overly confident”
(our new, Wellesley-approved, politically
correct form of “skank”). We decided that
the next weekend we could watch Pride and
Prejudice; an imaginary Mr. Darcy beat 30
real guys any day, no matter how willing or
unwilling to dance with us.
Elana Altman ’11 ([email protected])
only brakes for unicorns.
21
L A S T PA G E
Remix: A Survey of Student Opinion
Three intrepid Counterpoint reporters staked out the exits at Remix, Wellesley’s first major campus party of the school
year. The previous beginning-of-term party, Tower Court, was last held in 2004. Here’s what our reporters found out.
{ by ka t h e r in e s ca f u r i , j e nny k im , & e liz a b et h p a n }
B U STUDENT
Age: 18
Have you heard of Tower Court?
No.
Did you see Britney at the VMAs?
Yes. It was terrible.
How much have you had to drink?
Nothing.
Q: How many phone numbers have
you gotten tonight? Can I get your
number?
None. My number is 617 319 XXXX
Q: Where are you sleeping tonight?
In my dorm room.
Q: Stereotype of Wellesley/MIT?
Wellesley - Dykes. Ugly. Can’t dance
MIT- nerds. Good at math.
W EL LESLEY STUDENTS
Student No. 1:
Age: 20
Heard of Tower Court? Yes
No. of Drinks: None
How many numbers did you get/ Can
we get your number? I got 6 numbers.
Mine is 610 804-XXXX.
Where are you sleeping tonight? “In
the same room as my friend.”
Stereotype: None for Wellesley. MIT
guys are “computer geeks, socially
awkward, but brilliant.”
Evelyn, Wellesley senior, 21
On Tower Court: “It was much grosser. It was in the gym and everyone was
just really drunk and sweaty.”
Is Remix better than Tower Court: “I
think so.”
Saw Britney at the VMAs: “It’s just so
22
sad.”
Sterotype of MIT: “Definitely nerdier
than Wellesley.”
Name: Michelle
Age: 18
Heard of Tower Court? “The dorm?”
No. of Drinks: “I pregamed a little.”
Where are you sleeping tonight? “In
my bed”
Stereotype: “It’s nice to see Wellesley
girls having fun, but I think MIT guys
can be pretty obnoxious.”
M IT STUDENTS
Age: 20
Heard of Tower Court? Yes.
No. of Drinks: 16 shots of vodka
How many numbers did you get/Can
we have your number? 5 / 307 287
XXXX.
Stereotype: “I don’t stereotype. I’m
from MIT.”
Anonymous, MIT Junior (male), 20
From the UK, only been at MIT for two
weeks.
Stereotype: “I’ve only heard that
Wellesley is all girls.”
B R ANDEIS STUDENT
Anonymous, Brandeis sophomore,
20 (international, from Beligium,
English is 4th language)
Never heard of TC, did not see BS on
VMAs, did not drink anything, zero
phone numbers.
Where are you sleeping? “In your
room..... Seriously.”
counterpoint
Stereotype of Wellesley girls “Wellesley is cool. The girls here are more
beautiful than Brandeis. This is all
girls school? Why do they have that?”
Stereotype of MIT: “I’ve never heard
of it.”
B C STUDENTS
Name: Matt
Age: 20
Heard of Tower Court? No, I’ve never
heard of it.
See Britney at the VMAs? Yeah...at
least she had hair...
Can we have your number? I haven’t
gotten enough yet, can I get yours?
Where are you sleeping tonight? “You
tell me...”
Stereotype of Wellesley: “Dykes and
sluts.”
Name: Jasper
Age: 24
Heard of Tower Court? “Yes, I’ve
heard of Tower Court and there’s no
comparison...”
How much have you had to drink?
“Why, do you want me to get you
some?”
How many phone numbers have you
gotten tonight? “So far only one...”
Where are you sleeping tonight?
“Not sure yet, we’ll see how the night
goes.”
Stereotype: “Wellesley girls are nice,
but I didn’t go to MIT”
HAVE AN IDEA?
WE’LL
RUN
WITH IT.
TAKE PHOTOS. DRAW CARTOONS.
WRITE ARTICLES.
JOIN COUNTERPOINT
Deadline for the November issue:
OCTOBER 15
Email
[email protected]