Columns

HABR | Rape Culture and Our Friends

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Two weeks ago, a leaked tape released audio of Donald Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women, turning away a substantial amount of his voters and government supporters. The next week, I was with a friend and looked over his shoulder to see messages from his fraternity’s group chat referring to women with the sentiment: “if you’re not going to fuck them, what’s the point?” When I expressed my concern, someone else replied, “I didn’t say you should look.” My friend looked away and smiled awkwardly, uncomfortable enough for me to assume he knew something was wrong, but not uncomfortable enough to do anything about it. “Just locker room talk, right?” I wanted to ask sarcastically, but I held my tongue. What I saw was just a small incident, though one of many; but this article isn’t about frats. We all know the statistics, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men will be sexually assaulted in college.

Columns

BANKS | I’ve Always Hated Brainstorming Titles

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Although I’ve never had the slightest interest in being white, I’ve sometimes wondered what it might be like to exist amongst white people under the same cover of racial subterfuge. Then again, I suppose I don’t really need to wonder. The implications of whiteness remain a secret only to the white people who would bristle or sneer at such a notion — and, perhaps more importantly, have long since ceased to be a secret for any person of color who has traversed the cavernous, perilous chambers of an overwhelmingly white world. Yet, beyond this, I realize that — in a way — I already have an intimate, almost intuitive understanding of being white. After all, I am a man.

Columns

SCHULMAN | Sexism in Computer Science is Never Okay

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What I have to say isn’t novel or unique, but it is incredibly important: we need need to stop tolerating sexism in computer science and technology related fields. Like I said before, other people have written this (and have done a better job), but it’s time I stepped off the sidelines about something I see everyday that I find unequivocally wrong. Computer science is unapologetically misogynistic. Some 70 to 80 percent of the field is men. That number has gone up over time, not down.

Blogs

GROSKAUFMANIS | Not Like the Other Girls

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Some forms of sexism are easier to detect than others. For instance, we automatically know that when a child is told that they “throw like a girl,” he or she is being insulted. Despite the fact that none of those words alone are negatively charged, we can draw from societal context that “throwing like a girl” is bad, and, at the very least, not as good as “throwing like a boy.” This kind of sexism is pretty black-and-white: it points to misogynistic residue that exists today, with entire campaigns dedicated to combatting it. However, when sexist language directed towards females comes from females, the issue becomes more nuanced; particularly when the sexism is largely implicit. The irony of insular misogyny is both sad and abundant: girls condemning girls for being girls.

Arts & Culture

DOOLITTLE | It’s Not the Years, It’s the Mileage: Ageism and Sexism in Hollywood

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I have already gone through the seven stages of grief for Indiana Jones. In the eight years since the lackluster reception and, if I may say, gratuitous backlash to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I had accepted that my favorite cinematic character was dead and buried, interred until the inevitable reboot resurrection returned the whip-cracking archaeologist to the silver screen. Shia LaBeouf pre-not-being-famous-anymore had been set up as the likely standard bearer, or perhaps Chris Pratt would pick up the fedora, but someone had to replace Harrison Ford, who had long expressed a disdain for returning to popular roles. On Tuesday, Disney and Steven Spielberg announced that they were going ahead with the long-gestating fifth Indiana Jones movie, to be released in 2019. Of course, this was to be expected: When Disney bought out Lucasfilm in 2012, they acquired the entire Star Wars saga and the ability to print money, but also the rights to any future treks for the globetrotting acquirer of rare antiquities.

Arts & Culture

O’BRIEN | Kim Kardashian West: A Feminist Hero?

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Last week, the Internet exploded after Kim Kardashian West posted a (censored) nude selfie taken in a bathroom mirror, captioned “When you’re like I have nothing to wear LOL.” Kim Kardashian West has of course appeared nude or semi-nude in plenty of platforms before. But I guess something about it being a bathroom selfie, rather than an airbrushed and well-lit magazine photo, sparked such an intense reaction. What followed was a fascinating study in the policing of women’s bodies, with moral-panic-over-female-nudity and slut-shaming abound. Besides the average run-of-the-mill Twitter outrage, the post sparked some reactions from celebrities that mostly got attention because Kim took the time to respond to them (hilariously). Piers Morgan wrote, “I know the old man’s $50 million in debt, Kim — but this is absurd.

Arts & Culture

Mopping Up an Androcentric Hollywood

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PSA: Sexism still exists, especially in the entertainment industry! After watching Carrie Fisher, the actress who starred in the original Star Wars trilogy reprise the role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, viewers attacked her appearance across social media and stated that she is “too old to be acting.” After watching Brad Pitt, an actor with gray hair who has clearly aged since his first hints of stardom in The Big Short, viewers hailed him as “the rising star of political cinema”. Quite the discrepancy, if I do say so myself. To be fair, I don’t think any actors should be judged for their looks, but rather for their job, their acting. However, this seems to be an idealistic and unpopular view.