BY CHLOE JENSEN ’20
Last Thursday, the Animal Welfare Association drew chalk signs with messages such as “#PlannedPetParenthood” and “Animal liberation = human liberation.” These messages imply that somehow, if we collectively stop mistreating livestock in factory farms and pets in animal shelters, that humans too will be free of the many inequalities among us.
BY LILY REAVIS ’21
Campaigns aimed at raising awareness of the common female experience of sexual harassment and assault have become increasingly visible in the past 30 years. Anita Hill’s 1991 testimony against Clarence Thomas originally opened the floor for survivors to speak out, and that sentiment has been growing since. The #YesAllWomen and #WhatWereYouWearing hashtags trended on Twitter in the past few years, along with many others. Most recently, the #MeToo campaign has gone viral in response to allegations, with CBS News reporting 1.7 million retweets as of Tuesday.
BY JULIA SIENKIEWICZ ’20
My pre-Mount Holyoke life story is, I imagine, much like many of my fellow students. I came from an affluent, pressure-cooker high school that offered all the AP exams and churned out future Ivy League graduates. I participated in the rat race of applying to 13 top-tier schools and I agonized over whether the schools that accepted me would like me enough to award a scholarship. This sense of competition is socialized into us at a young age: personally, I planned my high school class schedule in seventh grade, and I was signed up for a wide range of activities in the hopes that I would distinguish myself in at least one of them.
BY JULIA SIENKIEWICZ '20
I’m very restrained in my emotions; I don’t cry often, maybe once or twice a month. The night following the Boy Scouts’ decision to let girls in, I made the mistake of reading too many awful articles, and seeing far too many of the comments. I wept for an hour; seeing how many people fail to understand the mission of Girl Scouts and the positive impact it has on its members made me feel like all I’d learned from my 13 years of scouting was meaningless.
BY JOURNEY MARTIN '21
What does it mean to be American? As a black American woman, this is something I constantly ask myself. We celebrate our independence on July 4, when the 13 colonies claimed independence in 1776 from England. We celebrate by dressing up in our national flag’s colors and watching fireworks at the end of the night. However, how does this day represent independence for black Americans when we were still enslaved during this time?
BY SARAH PAUST ’20
Pasta E Basta is a quaint Italian restaurant located on Main Street in downtown Amherst. It has two dining options: you can enjoy a sit-down meal with typical service upstairs, accessible via a windy staircase; or peruse the (downstairs) counter-service if you’re in a rush. I visited on a lazy Sunday evening with my friend, Mary Di Buono ’20, and we decided to sit upstairs in order to take advantage of the more leisurely setting.
BY LILY REAVIS ’21
The other day, I decided to test out the College’s Dining Services website, which lists the nutritional information for each meal served on campus. I’d picked up Indian dal for lunch, and wanted to know what was in it. During my search, I discovered that the nutritional information available online is difficult to find and often false.
BY NAIEKA RAJ ’19
If you have ever come across a vapid, face-palm-worthy, pseudo-inspirational article on Facebook shared by one of your insufferable relatives, then you should know that, as millennials, we are incapable of meeting the exceptional standards set by our predecessors — especially when it comes to maintaining successful relationships.
EILEEN O’GRADY ’18
Last Monday night as I walked the darkened path from Blanchard to Creighton Hall, I decided to count the pieces of litter that I saw on the ground along the way. I assumed that I would see some, but I didn’t ever imagine I would see the amount of litter that I did — plastic spoons, trampled plastic bags, dirty hand wipes, candy wrappers, paper towels, cigarette butts and an entire half-eaten paper bag full of Blanchard popcorn, just sitting on the ground beside the sidewalk.
BY CHLOE JENSEN ’20
After the death of Playboy Enterprises owner and founder, Hugh Hefner this past week, many people said he should be acknowledged for his advocacy of the early feminist and LGBTQ rights movement. However, despite his early efforts to normalize LGBTQ people and the feminist movement, his support was built on the premise of profit rather than the movements themselves. Hugh Hefner is absolutely not the LGBTQ supporter or feminist icon that we need, and his exploitation and objectification of women makes that clear.
BY LILY REAVIS ’21
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that her department is formally rescinding Obama-era guidance on how college campuses should handle sexual assaults under the Title IX law on Sept. 22. This decision effectively silences sexual assault victims, protects perpetrators and creates a community of silence on college campuses.
BY NAIEKA RAJ ’19
As the body-positivity movement advances through the Mount Holyoke College community, more and more questions surrounding the authenticity of these words are raised each day. With a large number of Lena Dunham-type “free-spirited” students roaming the campus and dominating the social scene, one would expect attitudes of self-love and appreciation to prevail just as confidently. Sadly, this is not the case and feelings of self-hate and struggles to meet conventional beauty standards continue to plague our daily existence. Although self care and body-positivity can be helpful, its language can be convoluted and not accessible to all.
BY CHLOE JENSEN ’20
When you’re struggling with depression or anxiety, it is very acceptable to passively deal with it through a slew of unhealthy coping mechanisms: binge-drinking every weekend, smoking cigarettes, developing eating disorders and self-harm, to name just a few. While students are struggling with their mental health, it is very socially acceptable for them to engage in gluttonous behavior while completely disregarding healthy and productive coping mechanisms and labeling them as “neurotypical.” This is toxic and maintains the attitude that healthy, self-care activities are only for non-mentally ill people.
BY CHLOE JENSEN ’20
While Mount Holyoke’s Learning Communities may be seemingly quirky and community-building, many of their interest-based floors prove to be an elaborate excuse to live in nice dorms, like Wilder or the Mandelles, and leave non-participating students with a higher chance of living in a lesser dorm.
BY NAIEKA RAJ ’19
Mount Holyoke College students have recently been hit by President Trump’s withdrawal from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. First issued in the summer of 2012 by President Obama, this program was able to provide some level of relief for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children by allowing youths to defer their immigration case for a period of two years. This meant young people were able to further their educational and professional goals and become accomplished community members. According to state records, the program has been a successful exception to an otherwise broken immigration system. Today, thousands of “Dreamers” face the prospect of losing the only home they’ve ever known, as the country’s attitude towards immigrants and ethnic minorities grows increasingly hostile each day.
BY LILY REAVIS ’21
Last week, Hurricane Irma hit the southern tip of Florida and continued up the Gulf Coast, prompting the evacuation of 6.3 million people and causing at least 26 deaths, according to CNN. This supposed “500-year storm” occurred just two weeks after Hurricane Harvey touched down in Texas, where city and county officials reported at least71 deaths.
BY JULIA SIENKIEWICZ ’20
Hillary Rodham Clinton. The name provokes varied reactions. Just as it was this time last year it’s difficult to detach opinions on Clinton’s present actions from preformed opinions of her as a person, whether that view be positive, negative or some other combination of feelings. Starting her time in the public eye as a politician’s wife, her projected image has changed so often over the years that it’s easy for many to dismiss her as the embodiment of everything wrong with American politics.
