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(03/19/03 12:00am)
Author: Megan O'Keefe As a part of Visibility Week, Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (moqa) hosted a lecture entitled "Politicizing the Personal: Reflections on Civil Unions" in Robert A. Jones '59 Seminar Room on Wednesday, March 12. The lecture drew on both the politically charged and deeply personal experiences of openly gay Vermont Representative Bill Lippert (D-Hinesburg) and Stan Baker, one of the plaintiffs who sued for the right to same-sex marriage in the Vermont State Supreme Court in 1997.In the introduction to Lippert and Baker's talk, moqa members stressed the goals of Visibility Week. Moqa sought to use the week to educate on issues facing members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer (GBLTQ) community.The political significance of civil unions and the groundbreaking actions of Lippert and Baker were initially hidden by the light-hearted connection struck between the audience and the two speakers. Stan Baker began the evening by displaying a photograph of himself and Peter Harrigan, his partner in civil union, which was taken on their wedding day. The photograph, set in a frame topped with little pairs of grooms, was displayed alongside Baker and Harrigan's wedding album.Lippert soon added his own brand of humor to the evening. While being introduced and the lengthiness of the two men's extensive accomplishments mentioned as taking too much time to cover, Lippert interjected saying "We don't mind!" This sent the audience roaring into laughter.Lippert and Baker soon turned their attention to the history of the Vermont crusade for civil unions, weaving their personal stories with the legal details. Baker, who spoke first, introduced himself as one of six plaintiffs who sued the state of Vermont in July 1997 for equal rights legislation for same-sex marriage.The lawsuit grew out of the efforts of the Freedom to Marry Taskforce, a movement formed in Middlebury in the mid-1990s. The organization, according to Baker, "did much of the footwork for what was to become the civil union" in the years leading up to the Supreme Court case. Baker's involvement began when the Freedom to Marry Taskforce asked him to narrate in a video entitled "The Freedom to Marry: A Green Mountain View." Baker said, "That was actually that beginning of my thinking that, well, this is something that we can do. Marriage- what an interesting idea! I wonder if that could happen." Once the Supreme Court case developed, Baker said, "Our role to a great degree was to put a human face on the Freedom to Marry movement and on the Supreme Court legislative initiative. 'It is much, much easier for people out there in the community to say 'I hate queers and fags,' than it is to say 'I hate Peter and Stan.' When you know someone, you know them as your neighbor, as friend, as your family member or as your colleague, it is much harder to push homophobia, because all of the sudden it is people you know," Baker said. Baker and Harrigan played a crucial role in humanizing the fight for gay marriage by displaying their love as a couple, revealing what their relationship meant and telling people what they hoped to gain through legal union. "For a lot of that time," Baker said, "our role was to go out and give speeches, meet people, be a couple and show them we were a part of the community."Baker, who lived in Addison County when the suit was filed, described the overwhelming support of his neighbors. While he was initially fearful of the repercussions of becoming a plaintiff in the case, Baker said that he and Harrigan seemed to change people's minds person by person. They had a few frightening moments, but many more reassuring ones. The Supreme Court decision, known as "The Baker Decision," was delivered in December 1999, passing the marriage decision down to the Vermont Legislature.Lippert, the only openly gay member of the Vermont Legislature, played an instrumental role in writing, debating, and passing the civil union law. He has been fighting for gay rights for over thirty years as a psychologist, activist and legislator (since 1994). As the Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Committee in 2000, Lippert was in a key position to push equal marriage rights. Lippert told the audience that he intentionally vied for that position because he knew that, speaking from personal experience, he could make a real difference if he were actually at the table when changes were discussed. Lippert stressed that the movement was not a total victory in the legislature, but was the best compromise possible. While the Freedom to Marry movement began with the goal of marriage, gay activists and their allies accepted civil union instead. The term "civil union" was coined in the legislature to give gay, lesbian and transgendered couples all of the rights granted to heterosexual couples through marriage. "We get everything under the law that a married couple could get," affirmed Lippert. Lippert's campaign was also extremely personal. He said, "I had the extraordinary personal experience to give a speech on the floor. It was probably for me the highpoint of my life, definitely my political life." At this point, 800 Vermont couples have been joined in civil union, which is performed by a justice of the peace. Baker and Harrigan were joined in civil union on Aug. 13, 2000 only a month and a half after civil unions were legalized by the Vermont Legislature.Asked why civil unions were legalized first in Vermont, Baker said, "The privileges and the political powers of living in Vermont are unparalleled anywhere else in the United States. The distance between us and the governor is incredibly small. You can actually call the governor if you want. This, I think, is a powerful piece of why civil union succeeded here."
(03/19/03 12:00am)
Author: Susan Goehring On Sunday in the Dana Auditorium, Hollywood screenwriter Michael Bender '97 came to speak and show his work to the Middlebury College community. Bender is currently working on his latest film titled "Fist Full of Candy," a Halloween movie due out this October of 2004. He only needed one year to complete writing this most recent venture, which he intends to target children in addition to the slightly more senior crowd.Bender is best known for his work in the "spoof" genre of film screenwriting. He has composed numerous short films created primarily for comic relief during the MTV Movie Awards. "Sex and the Matrix" stars Sarah Jessica Parker and her "Sex and the City" female brigade along with Jimmy Fallon taking on the tough role of the Matrix's Neo, Keanu Reeves. Tom Cruise and Ben Stiller, two stylistically conflicting actors, star in a parody of "Mission Impossible." Bender said his short pieces exist as "a good look alike for the films," and "that's what makes the films special." One spoof on "Project Greenlight," co-starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, the show's co-producers, was also shown on Sunday night. This presentation at the College was somewhat of a premiere screening. According to Bender, "everyone was drinking and no one actually watched the film" at its original presentation venue, a year-end celebration for the Miramax Film Corporation. Aside from these undersized clips, the full-length movie, "Not Another Teen Movie," which culminates in parodies of numerous "teen" films ranging from "Scary Movie" to "Grease," stands out as Bender's most famous work. Despite his effort and endless forced viewings of those movies-you'll-never-admit-to-have-seen-but-secretly-loved-anyway, this self-titled "drug addicted, unwed mother of all teen movies" was not kindly received by the majority of critics.With his Antonio Banderas-esque looks, knack for writing, and witty mentality, Bender has made a vibrant name for himself in the world of Hollywood film-making, just as he did while at Middlebury. Lecturer and Tutor-In-Writing Barbara Ganley, after having Bender in class, explained that his parodies were "destined for the screen" while writing as an undergraduate. Having completed his first screenplay one year after graduating from Middlebury College, there doesn't seem to be an end in sight to his constant flow of amusingly original ideas. His drive to produce remains stalwart and his ego resilient despite the poor reviews for "Not Another Teen Movie." The way Bender sees it, "If you throw enough s--t at the wall, something's gonna stick." Didn't we all learn as children that candy is quite adherent? We'll all have to anxiously await the sweet tasting holiday season of 2004 for this unveiling of Bender's future.
(03/12/03 12:00am)
Author: Zach Allen Cabin fever is rampant in the Northeast around this time of the year. There has been little to do over the past several months except waste away indoors with large quantities of alcohol, a good novel, and an eight log oak fire raging. It is a generally unhealthy lifestyle one pursues to make it through the winter here, and to compound the problem the human body by March has completely expended the supply of vitamin D it spent building up from the sun's rays over the summer. This has pernicious consequences. Without vitamin D, the sex drive and libido are doomed. The body takes on the color and texture of uncooked dough, while the brain slowly strangles itself under the weight of its own inactivity. Sensory cells die off in the billions, and the rate of hair loss is accelerated. The body becomes numb to each morning with the knowledge that the day will be exactly the same as the one before it, and the one before it...The point, I guess, is that it is impossible to get excited [or write] about sports right now, for any reason. There is no point to either activity. A general sense of fear and despair is hanging over the world, with 250,000 American GIs and millions of Iraqis standing on the edge of an abyss over the cradle of human civilization while the populace of the developed world is slowly fractured on every different institutional level. Nobody is interested in a headline like: "Yanks fine Wells $100k," or "Rockies Acquire Rehabbing Oriole for Prospect." I wouldn't go with the stupid old saying that "well, with all the bad things in the world right now, sports are a good distraction." Never even mind the inherent danger of allowing the general populace to be distracted from the course of human events by sports. When every bumpkin who wins a NASCAR race steps out of his hot rod, looks into the camera with a straight face and says: "Well golly, what a race ... I'd just like to tell everyone to support our president," I am struck with a strong urge to pack up and move to Iceland, preferably near some volcanic hot springs where I can soak all day, drink whiskey and listen to Bjork. They don't broadcast NHL games in Iceland, to my knowledge, and so I wouldn't have to watch the [seemingly] mandated seven minutes of jingoistic activity before any American sporting events. Nor will I have to watch the mandated 10-12 commercials during the game urging me to go join the Navy, Army, Marines, Army Reserve ("Hey! Go have some adventure! Have fun! See the World!"). And now, look! I have introduced exactly the kind of thing I despise into the sports pages, and possibly drawn the ire of my hard-working editors. Go Red Sox.
(03/05/03 12:00am)
Author: Laura Rockefeller On Monday, 1,004 theatre groups in 59 countries, including the Middlebury College Department of Theater, presented staged readings of the first anti-war play ever written: Aristophanes' "Lysistrata."The worldwide event was set in motion by Kathryn Blume and Sharron Bower as a plea for peace in the current international situation. The official Web site of the project explains that, "Though Lysistrata Project represents many individuals with a range of opinions, we all oppose a unilateral, pre-emptive attack on Iraq by the United States. We support the continued work of United Nations weapons inspectors."Readings of the play were presented in such varied locations as the Refugee Camp of Kurds in Patra, Greece, and by Tehrik e Niswan (The Women's Movement) in Karachi, Pakistan. The project made it possible for people all over the world to plead together for peace in the same words and on the same day, even though they have probably never met.The Project first came to the attention of Middlebury Professor of Theatre Cheryl Faraone when she received an e-mail in mid-January from Christian Parker '93 telling her about the initiative.She explained that she was excited by the idea, but other projects she was working on at the time put "Lysistrata" in the background. A little later she received a second e-mail from Vermont-based actress Janice Perry, asking whether the Middlebury Theater Department was involved in the project. Faraone sent out an e-mail to Middlebury students and professors in the Department of Theater and Dance, and work on the Middlebury production of "Lysistrata" began.The staged reading was presented in Wright Memorial Theatre on the partially finished set for the Theater Department's upcoming production of "Memorandum." As Faraone commented in her introduction to "Lysistrata," the stark wooden grid on the floor and the cavernous stage reaching behind the actors was "visually militaristic in a certain way" and allowed the audience's imagination to build the set of the Acropolis in their mind's eye.There was no charge for the performance but, in accordance with the guidelines of the project, all of the audience members were invited to donate money to Move On, an Internet peace organization.The atmosphere in the moderately filled theater was at ease but excited, as shown by the burst of applause that followed the announcement of the number of readings of "Lysistrata" that were taking place around the world and by the cheers that came at the reading's conclusion. Any small slips that were made by the actors as they read were greeted by good-natured laughter from audience and performers alike, which made the theater seem much smaller and brought all of the people in the space together with a marvelous sense of amity. Faraone had commented earlier, "Unfortunately most people who come will already agree with the premise." Although this might not have been ideal for starting a dialogue about the play and its message, it created a wonderful atmosphere at the performance. A group of people had been brought together and was able, for once in this very tense time, to laugh at the foolishness of man.The play tells the story of Lysistrata, a Greek woman, read by Perry, who decides to stop the war between Sparta and Athens by making all the women of the two city states go on a sex strike until the men agree to stop the fighting and make peace with each other. At the beginning of the play, the women swear, "I will suffer no man, be he husband or lover, to approach me all hot and horny." The result is a hilarious comedy, but one that has some moments of very poignant commentary on the devastating effects of war. The leader of the chorus of old women (Joya Scott '04) responds to one of the many derogatory comments directed at the women by the Magistrate (Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Peter Schmitz) by saying, "I pay my share, for I contribute the men."Described on the program as "a theatrical act of dissent," the play provoked the audience to ask themselves, in Lysistrata's words, "Why not make peace? Tell me. What prevents it?" Faraone explained that, for her, the idea of the project was "that theatre is coming to the table -- we should all be able to voice our opinions." She commented in her introduction to the piece, "It is a very exciting thing to be part of such a world-wide initiative ... what is particularly exciting for me is that art is part of the dialogue."For more information about the Lysistrata Project, check out the official website at www.lysistrataproject.org.
(03/05/03 12:00am)
Author: Kelsey Rinehart From Feb. 28 to March 2, thousands of flower fans flocked to the Sheraton Conference Center in Burlington for the annual Vermont Flower Show. The Vermont Association of Professional Horticulturists and the University of Vermont (UVM) sponsored the show, which was rated one of Vermont's top 10 winter events by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. The theme for 2003 was "Over the River and Through the Woods." The show featured educational seminars, flower displays with a model train layout, a professional floral competition including the floral artwork category, both non-profit and commercial exhibitors, children's activities and other sights and diversions.One of the featured speakers was Carol Ann Margolis, a teacher, museum educator, horticulture lecturer at UVM and the University of North Carolina and consultant to the National Gardening Association. Margolis has horticulture in her blood, and has been in love with plants all her life. "I still remember growing a bean (red scarlet runner bean) up to the second floor window of my house. Unlike Jack, I never climbed it, but was amazed how it grew. I also had the experience of having a pumpkin seed grow out of a bathroom sink. It happened because we washed and cleaned pumpkin seeds before roasting them in the oven. I was happy since my mom helped me pull the seedling out and transplant it into soil. No pumpkins grew, but I guess it was the beginnings of my horticultural career." She graduated from UVM with a double major in botany and plant and soil science and received her Master of Science from Michigan State University. She has spread her enthusiasm for the world of flowers and insects to eager listeners at libraries, schools, daycare centers and garden clubs. On her invitation to speak at the 2002 Vermont Flower Show, Margolis said, "I was delighted to do a talk on butterflies and blooms since I was involved in creating a live, outdoor, 600-square-foot native butterfly house at the Virginia Living Museum. Monarch butterflies are my specialty."This year, Margolis chose a different path. "I decided it would be fun to do a talk for adults on 'Sex in the Garden.' I dressed in a full bee costume with antennas on my head. I brought slides, puppets and additional bee costumes to make the presentation come alive," she said. She described "the vectors of pollination: wind, water, and the most common, animal," the "results of floral sex (fruits are the mature ovaries and the fertilized eggs become seeds)," and the "common Vermont pollinators: bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, beetles, flies (no fruit bats here)." Margolis also tried to convey the importance and fragility of the balance between pollinators and plants. "I encouraged the audience to plant a pollinator garden since many pollinators' habitat has been destroyed for shopping malls and new homes. It is said that one out of every four honey bee colonies has died since 1990. In many cases, this is due to pesticides, disease, loss of habitat, etc." she noted.Margolis said, "I think they all had fun learning about sex in the garden. I did keep it mostly G-rated. Garden-rated is what I told them!" She recalled one of the highlights: "You should have seen the six-foot guy I chose to dress in a bee costume on Sunday and help me pollinate some flowers. It was great fun."Sandy Burkholder, who runs the Blossom Basket, a flower and gift shop in Middlebury, said, "I think it's a great show for this area. We're lucky that we have people that are willing to put the effort forward. I'd love to see more people involved with it. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for people to get involved with something that's so worthwhile." Burkholder entered a floral design piece in the show's competition. "The design thing is a great experience because I think you learn from doing it, whether you win or not. It's an exciting feature," she said.Thirty presentations scheduled throughout the weekend gave curious visitors and aspiring gardeners and horticulturists a diversion from the exhibits themselves. In addition to "Sex and the Garden," seminars such as "Vermont's Most Wanted Invasive Plants and What We Can Do About Them," "Extending the Day: A Guide to Gaining Time by Lighting the Landscape," "Gardening with Wildlife," "Growing the Best Vegetable Garden Ever," "Growing Fruits Successfully" and "Bonsai" intrigued listeners. Words of wisdom were given by landscape designers, horticulturists, professors, private nursery and garden owners and representatives from the Nature Conservancy, the Vermont Departments of Agriculture and of Fish and Wildlife and the Woodstock Historical Society.Both Burkholder and Margolis are excited about the 2004 Vermont Flower Show. "Hopefully it will continue and grow into something even bigger and better," Burkholder remarked. "The Vermont Flower Show is a wonderful event that allows everyone (usually 8,000 people enjoy the three-day show) to share their passion for gardening. Kudos to the VAPH for putting it on each year! Next year, I am hoping to do a family program with the topic 'Garbage Can Horticulture' - growing things from your dinner table - oranges, papayas, pineapples etc."
(03/05/03 12:00am)
Author: Michael Hatch "Y Tu Mama Tambien," written and directed by Alfonso Cuaron, is the raunchy yet touching look at the waning years of adolescence portrayed via the classic road trip, screened at Dana Auditorium on Saturday. A pair of frantic goodbye-sex scenes opens the story and sets the theme at a teenage high-hormone pitch that holds through most of the movie. But before you get yourselves ready for a soft-porn rental, read on -- the movie has a few more layers. During those first scenes of graceless sex we are also introduced to the narrator. As the copulating pair Ana and Tenoch make their vows of faithfulness, "I promise you I will not f-- any...," and chime together then alternatively, "Italians!" "Frenchmen!" "Brazilians!" "Chinamen!" the sound suddenly cuts out and the camera roams along with the voice of the narrator. As the muted scene continues, we are shown how Tenoch's sexual relationship with Ana is not hindered by her middle-class psychologist father and his wife. By this point, the camera has panned out of the bedroom, still deaf to the scene, and we explore the house with the narrator. We move on to Julio's girlfriend's house, where the narrator informs us that the girl's father is less than thrilled by the lower middle class boy that his daughter, Cecilia, is seeing. Cecilia, along with Tenoch's girlfriend Ana, are both in the midst of packing for a summer vacation in Italy together, hence the goodbye sex. With the pretense of finding a lost passport, Julio is finally admitted to his girlfriend's bedroom where the quick, comical sex scene transpires. On this note, the boys are left with a sexless summer to spend smoking pot, watching TV and masturbating at the country club pool on its vacant days. This routine continues until they meet Luisa, the wife of Tenoch's unfaithful and pretentious cousin. While drooling down her blouse at a family wedding, they tell her with idiotic charmlessness of "Heaven's Mouth," the beautiful unknown beach where they wish to take her. But she doesn't want to go, at least not until a visit to the hospital and a drunken phone call from her husband prime her. With these two experiences in hand, she calls Tenoch, who is all too willing to give up a few days of his vapid existence to pursue the older beauty. The two boys frantically pull together a plan and the road trip moves forward, with Tenoch, Julio, Luisa and plenty of pent up sexual energy packed up in the back of a station wagon.As our characters traipse through their flirtations and we learn about the Charolastra manifesto -- a group of ideals for their friendship of Charolastras -- the narrator constantly cuts the sound and chimes in the realities that are occurring beyond the slim boundaries of these mildly frustrated lives. As the road tears on, the narrator recounts small and seemingly unrelated vignettes. For example, the narrator delves into a momentary glimpse of a blue cross on the side of the road. Had we had been there exactly 10 years earlier, we would have come across a gruesome accident scene with a mother grieving over her child, surrounded by crates of bloody, maimed chicken and an overturned truck. Or he tells us about the woman who gives Luisa a stuffed animal labeled Luisita and of the woman's granddaughter of that name who had died crossing into Arizona from Mexico years ago.While the sexual tensions build within the frame of the road trip, we are constantly reminded of the realities of rural Mexico in contrast to the lives of these more privileged youths. Slowly the two realities begin to intersect, and the boys, who were at the beginning filled with narrow self-absorption, are forced to actually deal with the consequences of their actions. Fights break out, friendships are broken, drunkenly mended and then quickly and surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, made awkward again.Throughout the movie, Luisa retains our respect and the unnamed title of heroine. She is both the most sensitive character to the realities that surround her as well as the one whose primary issues become most central to the movie. While raunchy humor and acute social commentary on class and priorities tinge "Y Tu Mama Tambien," Luisa's story holds the plot together in this movie -- a movie well worth one's time.
(02/26/03 12:00am)
Author: Chigozie Ogwuegbu After more than year of being silenced, imposed on me because of the criminal charges I was forced to defend, I could not help but feel a profound sense of anger and frustration after reading The Middlebury Campus article, "Alumnus Acquitted of Sexual Assault" (The Campus, Feb. 19, 2003). Up to now, other than generally asserting that I was innocent, I have made no public attempt to address the accusations which were levied against me. Unfortunately, as I have had to endure a year of court dates, emotional and psychological trauma and finally a three-day trial, this ordeal seems never ending. No one can imagine the sense of helplessness and, at times, despair I felt when I realized I was caught up in a criminal justice system that frankly viewed me as being guilty until proven innocent. I know there were many in the Middlebury College community who felt likewise that I was guilty. My only question to them is why if a man, especially an African-American man, is accused by a white woman of rape and the only evidence is the accuser's words, why is there a presumption of guilt? The Campus article raised more questions than ever. I came away feeling that questions about my innocence remained. Although the legal proceedings had concluded, I was once again being tried in the "court" of public opinion.For one, The Campus felt no obligation to protect my name from being associated with the charges, despite the obvious damage to my reputation. In contrast, the "plaintiff" remained anonymous. For all anyone knew, this person, who was sympathetically portrayed, could have been anyone at Middlebury. Therefore, she was shielded from the potential prejudice and indeed scrutiny she might have otherwise been subjected to. The absence of a name negates the possibility of readers having some context that would allow for a more critical evaluation of the facts. Anonymity, therefore, frees one from judgment, something I was not afforded, because my name does not lend itself to ambiguity as to my background or ethnicity. Thankfully, the jury had the opportunity to become acquainted with the "plaintiff" and with me when both of us had the opportunity to testify. Each of us was thoroughly cross-examined to reveal the truth and ultimately to test the veracity of our competing versions of the facts. After three days of trial and testimony, in which the fullest extent of the state's investigative and prosecutorial resources were brought to bear against me with the single purpose of proving my guilt, the jury of 12 entered a verdict to "acquit" me of all charges. They decided this after deliberating for only two hours. An "acquittal," according to Black's Law Dictionary, means "The legal and formal certification of the innocence of a person who has been charged with a crime; deliverance or setting free a person from the charge of guilt." According to the commentators, "in the narrowest sense it is the absolution of a party".So why is it after reading The Campus article I do not feel "set free" from the charges brought against me? I want no part of "victimhood." After being deprived of my freedom and experiencing the disempowerment that an accused man faces within the criminal justice system, I will not empower anyone to feel "sorry" for me. In the end, were many people willing to assume that the sexual relationship was non-consensual because this matter involved a black man having sex with a white woman? Were people willing to accept that the plaintiff was forced or intimidated into having sex because of these racial differences? I have struggled with these questions during the entire course of the proceedings because I did not want to accept that at Middlebury, this place of liberal thinkers, such views could hold sway or affect the way I was perceived by others. Yet what I said really didn't seem to matter. Reality intruded on the illusion that things would be different at the College when it came to race and gender issues.Other than the fact we are all Americans, a rural Vermont jury comprised of seven white women and five white men is not, in the most perfect sense, a jury of my peers as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. Yet that jury, after thoroughly examining the evidence and listening to the witnesses, measuring the credibility of each, particularly that of the "plaintiff" and the "defendant," voted to acquit and found me not guilty. White men and white women from Addison County came to believe that I did not sexually assault the "plaintiff," whose anonymity I shall respect. An exoneration based solely on the evidence presented in court.Now if The Campus had addressed that aspect of the trial, I am sure some people might feel differently after reading the comments and quotes attributed to the "plaintiff" who seemed to imply that she didn't get a "fair hearing." Vermont is the whitest state in the United States. I am a black man, often portrayed through stereotypes and media images as a sexual or criminal predator, and yet what is reaffirming in this, despite my own prejudices at the outset of the trial, is that 12 white people from "white Vermont" placed credence in my testimony and that of those who testified on my behalf and concluded that I did not assault a "white plaintiff." If I were in Washington, D.C., for example, and got tried for this case and got acquitted, people could easily say, "Oh! Well, he probably did it," because a mixed jury would have heard the case. Given that Washington is predominantly black, many people believe it is the one city in which a black man will likely be cut loose by a black jury on a criminal charge. How's that for bias? But no, in Middlebury 12 white people took less than two hours to reach a not guilty verdict. I have repeated this fact for emphasis because I want you to think about how you would feel, facing the possibility of 20 years in jail and the permanent label of "sex offender." Walk a moment in my shoes and consider being placed in a similar circumstance before a jury not of your peers. Though I initially felt a little betrayed and hurt by The Campus article, I appreciate the opportunity to tell my side of the story. For a long while it has been difficult for me to feel like a part of this community. Many turned their backs on me and treated me as though I was a lesser person. When I graduated, the joy I should have felt was muted and filled with sadness because of the legal gauntlet I had yet to face before I could truly look forward to the "bright" future a Middlebury education promises. This experience has been a hard-earned, real-life lesson and one I would hate to see any other person face. I now realize absolution may never be complete. Prior to my ordeal, I was ignorant of the machinations of the legal system that supposedly serves and protects the freedoms and democracy of our beloved country. Until I almost lost my freedom, I readily assumed that if someone was charged with a crime, that they had probably committed the crime. I also believed in the fairness and impartiality of the investigators and prosecutors who I now understand have biases and political agendas. There are always two sides to a story. We should work hard not to form opinions until we have heard both sides. It is only fair. I am not here to retry the case or prove my innocence. But I do want to help students gain insight and understanding of the situation and then allow them to draw their own conclusions. People who know me can testify as to my character and the kind of person I was during my four years at Middlebury. I hope that one day people will associate and recognize my name for accomplishments beyond this unfortunate event.Chigozie Ogwuegbu is a graduate of the Class of 2002 and lives in Washington, D.C.
(02/19/03 12:00am)
Author: Laura Erickson-Schroth and Jena Siegel Is feminism dead? Certainly it has come a long way in the past few decades. However, one issue that is being heavily disputed in Washington these days -- and threatens to undo 30 years of progress -- is the right of a woman to maintain control over her own body. On Jan. 22 and 23 we attended the "Never Go Back" conference in Washington, D.C., organized by the Feminist Majority Foundation in honor of the 30th anniversary of the historic abortion rights case Roe v. Wade. The conference was planned in response to recent threats to women's reproductive rights in the United States and abroad. Currently, the constitutional right to a legal abortion hinges on a single vote in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court's last affirmative decision on abortion was a narrow 5-4 vote in the 2000 Sternberg v. Carhart case. Women's reproductive rights are in jeopardy because our president and the majorities in both houses of Congress support anti-abortion laws and may soon appoint a Supreme Court Justice.There were 400 students representing 40 states and 114 campuses across the country in attendance at the conference. Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation, addressed the students first, urging each and every individual to take responsibility for women's reproductive rights in the future. Other speakers included Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood; Kate Michelman, president of NARAL: Pro-Choice America; Kim Gandy, President of NOW; Sen. Barbara Boxer (D- Calif.) and Dr. Jane Smith, CEO of Business and Professional Women. These powerful and passionate women spoke about the significance of shifting the national debate of reproductive rights from a polarized, objective stance to a more personalized understanding. Stressing the strength in diversity and collectivity, they emphasized the role that each individual could play in protecting reproductive freedoms, especially on college campuses.On the second day of the conference, student attendees visited Congressional offices. In the meetings with senators, house representatives and offices of the legislators, students voiced the importance of protecting women's reproductive rights and encouraged senators to ask justice nominees their position on abortion and support a filibuster if a nominee is anti-abortion. After the president nominates a candidate, 60 out the 100 senators must be in favor of a vote in order for it to take place. If 41 senators declare a filibuster, or what is known as a "delay or prevention of action", the president may be forced to choose a candidate with a more favorable stance on abortion rights. Without a filibuster, a justice whose vote will overturn the Roe decision may be appointed, thus putting the lives of many women in danger. As then-Governor Bush stated in 1994, "I will do everything in my power to restrict abortion" (http://www.nevergoback.org/).Why is this issue important to us as college students? Many of us take for granted that fact that abortion is an option. What if it no longer were? It may seem like a far-fetched idea, but those days are closer than we think. Although abortions are currently legal, they are often unsafe, unaffordable and limited by state laws. Since 1995, 335 state laws have been passed restricting reproductive freedoms. These laws include parental consent and notification laws, bans prohibiting Medicaid coverage of abortion and 24-hour waiting periods in which women are often forced to wait at least 24 hours between the time they see a doctor for an abortion and the time when the abortion is performed. Other laws may eventually prevent women who live in states where abortion is illegal from traveling to another state to have the operation. It may also become a felony to assist a woman in traveling outside of her state to obtain an abortion. Presently, the lives of doctors performing abortions, clinic workers and other supporters are often in danger, as are the lives of women who choose to have abortions. Even the small freedoms that we currently hold, however, are in jeopardy. If Roe is overturned, the right to a legal abortion will most likely be taken away in many states that are dominated by anti-abortion majorities. According to Feminist Majority Foundation statistics, 12 million illegal abortions were performed before Roe v. Wade. If abortion is outlawed, women will once again turn to unsafe back-alley abortions, risking their lives because the law no longer protects them. Thousands of women died from back-alley abortions when legal abortion was not an option, and this number has decreased dramatically now that women can choose to have an abortion under the law. To overturn Roe would be to take a drastic step backwards for women's rights and health. As college students we know firsthand how important it is to fight for women's reproductive rights. Sex happens. Even when partners are extremely careful, things can go wrong. What would you do if you got pregnant? Or if your girlfriend did? Would you like to know that she had the option of an abortion? If we do not speak out about a woman's right to choose, we may one day find ourselves in a difficult situation, with one very important option no longer available to us. It is time to stand up, raise our voices and vow that we will never go back. Jena Siegel is a psychology and philosophy double major from Purchase, New York. Laura Erickson-Schroth is a psychology and pre-med major from Brooklyn, New York.
(02/19/03 12:00am)
Author: Jonathan White Renewing a Delicate, But Necessary ConversationNews of sexual assault on campus demands a revival of last year's discussion concerning sexual assault policy. Are victims finding the appropriate support mechanisms and is there an infrastructure in place in which they are comfortable reporting an assault? If not, then the College should create a rape crisis center, open 24 hours a day, that can provide immediate medical assistance and confidential support. Yet addressing the needs of victims is just one step. If there is to be a dialogue, then the subject of rape and date rape, all-too-real concerns on college campuses, must no longer be treated as taboo. Forums and discussions must take place. What constitutes a rape in an environment where sex, alcohol and youth conspire in an often-casual manner to produce poor judgments? If a discussion is to be launched, then victims must feel confident in reporting their cases, seeking confidential counseling, but also, somehow, feel empowered to take steps to actively prevent a similar situation from befalling others. An audience beyond FAM should take up the problem of date rape, and the alcohol and drug consumption that sometimes complicates the issue. An impasse remains until proactive steps are taken by all members of the community to talk about this delicate issue. If this means tackling first the culture behind the problem, the lack of resources for victims, College policy or the blurry line between rape and poor judgment, then let the discussion begin so that these acts might one day stop. If we are concerned about these hideous acts, then we will no longer shroud them in a climate of silence where victims are scared to report their stories. The War Is Only Half the BattleLast weekend's worldwide protests demonstrated that goodwill towards America has undergone an alarming reversal. A mere 17 months ago, the world mourned with the United States over the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001. Yet now America and President Bush have become public enemy number one in the eyes of millions.While confronting Iraq may be the next logical step in the war on terror, this war is already being lost if the estimation of the United States has fallen to all-time lows. Millions marched on Rome and Madrid. London recorded the largest protests ever. Middlebury College students studying in Europe are being informed that anti-Americanism is at an all-time high and are urged to exercise caution. President Bush cannot allow Saddam Hussein to emerge as a martyr in the eyes of a new generation of anti-American zealots in the Middle East. Nor should Bush lose the card of righteousness in defending the free world from international terrorism. That he has represents a clear failure of diplomacy, if not a disregard for the concerns of the international community. By failing to win a clear consensus in the nation and abroad on the merits of proceeding with the war on terror, Bush risks the cultivation of a deeper anti-Americanism not merely in the Middle East, but also in Europe and Asia. This will be detrimental in the long run to fighting the ideological roots of terrorism. That Bush is villainized in the streets by the millions should be cause for caution. Its time for the White House to re-examine its approach, yet on Tuesday the President said that protestors would not change his mind. Diplomacy should not be abandoned as a gesture that the United States understands that fighting terrorism requires worldwide cooperation. Moreover, a vigorous campaign to improve the perception of the United States in the Middle East, perhaps in Europe and Asia too, are steps in the war on terror that should not be overlooked in a rush towards military engagement in Iraq.
(02/19/03 12:00am)
Author: Suzanne Mozes Giving voices to the vaginas of women across the world on Valentine's Day, 19 Middlebury College female students let their vaginas speak at Eve Ensler's '75 "The Vagina Monologues." The two performances in McCullough marked the fifth anniversary of the show at the College, infusing V-Day with a dual meaning.Just as the word "vagina" stuns the reader of this article, the word bewilders the audience at first. A staunch discomfort and apprehension surrounds this word in the public and private domain. But by the conclusion of the performance, "vagina" is said 136 times. Ensler desensitizes the audience with repetition while reclaiming the word with pride and reassurance.The night opened with performances by the Mischords, Ryan Dunn-Komeh '05 and Anais Mitchell '04, who dedicated her song to her grandmother sitting in the audience. She prefaced it with, "If it weren't for her vagina, where would I be?" The performance delved into sexual discovery, gender issues, heart-wrenching pain and comic issues of the female genitalia while circumventing expected "male bashing." The evening focused on celebrating women, their bodies and their minds.Directors Joya Scott '04 and Kate Pines-Schwartz '03 cast the 14 monologues with aptitude that mirrored the diversity of roles and the 300 interviews upon which "The Vagina Monologues" are based.While all the performers, clad in outfits that made them feel sexy, left the audience somewhat awe-struck, several of the one-acts left a particularly striking impression due both to the quality of their performance and the material being discussed.In "The Flood," Liz Myers '03 assumed the role of a 72-year-old woman from Long Island with a fastidious accent, focusing her performance on embarrassing encounters with the opposite sex at an early age. Striking a balance between attitude, ethnicity, comedy and respect, Lollie Perez '03 brought out the true texture of "My Angry Vagina" when she yelled, "I don't want my pussy to taste like rain." Parker Diggory '04.5 then launched into 16 moans with dramatic urgency and careful deliberation in "Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy," and Charzetta Nixon '06 developed from a child into a young woman with delicate sensibility in "The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could."During "Under the Burqa", Scott and Pines-Schwartz made a directorial decision to send two other performers in a procession through the audience toward Lily Balsen '06, who was onstage. Balsen walked in a similar solemn processional downstage. The two performers then walked onstage, and lifted their black cloth in front of Balsen, then finished with her performance. When the cloth was dropped, Balsen had magically vanished, leaving the stage void of sound. While the image mirrored the concept of "Under the Burqa," the black cloth and extra women onstage distracted from Balsen's solid performance in this serious, moving piece about an Afghani woman. Furthermore, the processional added implications of an unrelated religious ceremony and made the audience question if women were the cause for their own oppression. Yet, the visual image should be applauded for complementing the idea of "being cut off" and for its experimental liberty.These monologues, along with "My Vagina Was My Village" and "The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could" left legs tightly crossed and clenched. Scott felt that the monologues were particularly difficult because they are so powerful. "We were walking a fine line between accuracy while maintaining the audience's distance to prevent them from feeling threatened. We tried to strike a balance between solidarity and women in such situations and such issues to allow the audience to understand the context ... [and] to identify with these women."Ensler's script, catalyzing the creation of V-Day in 1998, began as a way to stop violence against women, a problem she encountered with alarming frequency during her interviews across the world. As Caitlin Vaughn '04 explained, "Violence against one woman anywhere is violence against women everywhere." As a result, ticket and merchandise sales for this year's two performances raised approximately $2,500 for Womensafe, a center for women and their needs, in the Middlebury area. Moreover, Scott and Pines-Schwartz declared the Middlebury College campus "a rape free zone." This directorial decision was inspired by in a celebrity filled performance at Madison Square Garden in 2001 organized and directed by Ensler.Ensler, a Middlebury graduate, explained in an introduction to her one-woman show that she did not "have girlhood fantasies about becoming the 'vagina lady.'" In fact, while at the College, Ensler studied Sylvia Plath's poetry in the midst of a serious bout with depression and alcoholism.Only after her graduation did Ensler sober up and begin her work as a feminist playwright.The V-Day movement, spurred by Ensler, now moves with its own inertia. Over 2,000 V-Day events took place on Valentine's Day this year on over 1,000 locations across the world."The Vagina Monologues" give women a new means of communication through a second set of lips. While flushing false feelings of security can be alarming, raising awareness of violence against women can only help, just as this past performance has helped the College's small campus.
(02/19/03 12:00am)
Author: Edward Pickering An Addison County jury acquitted former Middlebury College student Chigozie Ogwuegbu '03 of a sexual assault charge brought against him by a female student who claimed he date-raped her on the night of Feb. 21, 2002. The trial, which concluded on Feb. 7, 2003, lasted three days.Initially charged with aggravated sexual assault, later amended to sexual assault, Ogwuegbu faced up to 20 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $10,000.Addison County State's Attorney John Quinn argued that the plaintiff had been drunk on the night of Feb. 21 and had not willingly had sex with the defendant. Ogwuegbu's attorney, Robert Keiner, argued that the plaintiff was sober and that the sex was consensual."I am just glad to get on with my life. Pretty much my whole year was on hold," said Ogwuegbu in an interview with The Middlebury Campus. He now resides in Washington, D.C., and works as a consultant in the communications industry. The plaintiff was "upset and extremely disappointed" by the court's decision, said Quinn in a phone conversation. "She was in tears." Quinn noted that the plaintiff, who declined comment for this article, no longer attends Middlebury College.Middlebury Police Officer Vegar Boe began investigating the case when he received an anonymous phone call March 13, 2002. The caller proved to be the plaintiff herself. According to Boe's affidavit, dated April 10, 2002, the plaintiff and Ogwuegbu met at a party on the night of Feb. 21. The plaintiff then invited Ogwuegbu to leave the party with her. Back at her dormitory, the two took a shower together and then returned to her room. The plaintiff and Ogwuegbu differ on what happened next. The plaintiff claimed, in court documents, that she was drunk and was forced to have sex against her will. In the same court documents a friend of Ogwuegbu's stated that Ogwuegbu told him, "[the plaintiff] was not uneasy at any point that night about anything going on."In court documents the plaintiff did acknowledge "that she had an interest in [Ogwuegbu] for some time." She "thought he was really nice and wanted to date him."Attorney Quinn stated, "She was romantically interested in the guy so I can't see why she would make [the charges] up."Following her encounter with Ogwuegbu, the plaintiff designed a poster that was displayed across campus. According to court documents, the plaintiff showed the poster to a friend and said, "I have to do something, and I have to show him that I am not just going to go away. I have to think about him everyday, and I want to put these up so he has to think about me."Ogwuegbu observed that when the posters first appeared he was ignorant of both their origin and relevance. "When the posters started going up I still didn't know what was going on.""I felt like I was the victim of a campaign led by [the plaintiff's roommate] and [the plaintiff] to bring womens' right issues to attention on campus," said Ogwuegbu, referring to the posters and his belief that the plaintiff's roommate influenced the plaintiff's decision to press charges.Robert Keiner echoed his client in a statement published last week in The Addison Independent article of last week. "There is no question in my mind here that the roommate both encouraged her to make the police report, and subsequently made the woman a poster-child for FAM's cause."Feminist Action Middlebury (FAM) co-president Joya Scott '03 denies that her organization sponsored last spring's poster campaign. "FAM has never been directly involved in [the court case]," she added. "The case was not public knowledge among FAM members. It was never discussed in meetings."The plaintiff's roommate refutes the imputation that she influenced her roommate's decision. "It was her decision and no one else's to report the incident to the police," she said "It is ridiculous to assert that I, as her friend, would have tried to convince her or urge her to go through with something so painful simply to further my political agenda on campus," said the plaintiff's roommate.When asked why the plaintiff waited nearly three weeks before notifying police of her encounter, her roommate responded, "It is not uncommon for women who have been raped to be in a state of shock and denial afterwards. This denial can go on for weeks, months or years.""Regret," Ogweugbu said, referring to the lapse of time, "does not lead to rape."Several people close to the plaintiff remarked that her behavior changed drastically after Feb. 21. "She was a happy go-lucky, personable girl before the encounter," said Quinn, "but afterwards cried a lot and acted reclusively, staying in her room."I argued that [the plaintiff] should be believed because of her emotional change after the incident. Her behavior was consistent with victims of sexual assault. I had a dean and good friend of hers testify on this point," he continued. Ogwuegbu said he regretted that this past year he had "to forfeit a lot of opportunities." He said he is relieved to be cleared of the charges brought against him.
(02/12/03 12:00am)
Author: Andrea Gissing Sounding Off Against SUVsA group of students from Stanford University is starting a campaign to raise awareness of the contributions made by sport utility vehicles (SUVs) to environmental and political problems. The campaign, named "SUV SOS," plans to educate faculty and students about automobile consumption and especially SUV oil consumption among the Stanford and broader national community by tying it to global climate change and dependence on foreign oil.Seniors Jonathan Neril and Josh Bushinsky, an international relations major and an earth systems major respectively, are leading the campaign.Neril thought that the issue of SUV use was especially pertinent to the university community because of the large number of SUVs owned and driven by Stanford students. "We want to make people aware that SUV consumption is a national security issue and a global environment issue, not just a personal choice," Neril said."The idea is that the technology to make these cars more efficient is out there and it's been sitting on the shelves for decades," said Bushinsky, continuing that since the automotive industry has focused on things like car size and horsepower instead of emissions, there has been a decline in average fuel efficiency since the late 80s. He has been amazed by the student response that the campaign has had since the group's first meeting on Jan. 29. So far, the group has concentrated on gathering student attention through e-mails. They are currently planning a protest on Feb. 14 at the Burlingame auto mall where students will try and raise media attention through speeches, chants and spoken-word protests.Source: U-Wire.comModern Technique Mixes Things UpStephen Webber, a professor of music production and engineering at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, has been trying to integrate a more modern musical style into the college's curriculum: turntablism. Webber has designed a course that would teach students the technical and musical basics of hip-hop turntable techniques, which involves manipulating a record against the needle to create percussive sounds and beats. The college turned down the idea of the Class in 2000 because the provost disapproved and again in 2001 when the executive vice president rejected it because of budget constraints. Despite the opposition to the course, Webber wrote and published "Turntable Technique: The Art of the DJ," the first musical method book for aspiring hip-hop DJs. He used interviews, photographs and traditional musical notation to create a series of lessons and exercises that anyone wishing to learn could practice. The book became one of Berklee Press' best-selling titles, which encouraged college's administrators to reconsider the course. If Berklee approves the course, it will be the first hip-hop performance class to be offered at a conservatory, applying Western notation and theory to an oral tradition. Courses on hip-hop music and culture have become increasingly common at colleges in the past 10 years. However, they are predominantly cultural or analytic in their approach, not instructional or practical.Source: The New York TimesHarvard To Return Donation From Jane FondaHarvard University has announced that because of the continued downturn in the stock market, along with new university rules regarding research centers, it would return most of a donation that Jane Fonda pledged to the Graduate School of Education. The $12.5 million donation, which was made two years ago, was going towards the establishment of a major research center on sex and education. The university is also giving up its plans for the center. The decision to discontinue the project and return the donation was a mutual decision between Harvard and Fonda.A spokeswoman for the School of Education said that Harvard would return a large portion of the $6.5 million that Fonda had already given to the university. The stock market slump has also prevented Fonda from completing the second half of the gift. The portion of the donation that will be kept by the university will be used to support a curriculum development project that will address teachers' understanding of sex, race and class, and the impact those have on the educational experience of students. Fonda's donation was the largest single donation in the Graduate School of Education's 83-year history.Source: The New York Times
(01/15/03 12:00am)
Author: Lindsey Whitton "Short" Man Exposes Himself to CustodianTwo students identified an alleged harasser based on a police sketch on the University of Arkansas campus. The suspect allegedly harassed a university custodian twice, grabbing her, exposing himself and fleeing before she had time to use her pepper spray. Around 1 a.m. Friday night the suspect was seen entering a building as two students exited through a back door after working late on a project. "He looked really nervous, like he had been waiting for someone to open the door," said Brittni Aldridge, a senior broadcast journalism major. "As soon as [her friend] stepped out, he darted in past me and ran to the elevators." The police quickly arrived, and after searching the building they found the man hiding in an upstairs classroom. The 42-year-old local resident was taken in for questioning, but since the police did not witness the crime, they are awaiting a warrant before making an official arrest."He had a story that he was there to meet a friend but all of that is most likely not true," said Lt. Gary Crain, the University of Arkansas Police Department public information officer. "He may be using that for an alibi but what he did was a violation of the law and he will be arrested."Both Crain and Aldridge were remarkably impressed with the sketch that had been prepared by the Springdale Police Department and the victim. "The man was short, around 5'4" and wore a blue toboggan, glasses and a black trench coat. He looked almost exactly like the sketch in the paper. I couldn't believe the resemblance," Aldridge said.Source: The Arkansas TravelerRent-a-Gent Bachelor Auction Includes GaysThe organizers of Brandeis University's annual Rent-A-Gent Bachelor Auction were successful in their effort to promote same-sex bidding this year. The auction, which featured 63 bachelors and raised about $6,000 for the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, was, as in years past, dominated by female bidders but also included a relatively substantial group of male bidders as well. Emcee Morty Rosenbaum '03 made the first male bid when he challenged event organizer Mariel Meringolo's bid on graduate student Matt Preece, who was sporting vinyl pants and a cowboy hat. "You want to get the crowd excited, and once Mariel started bidding, it worked, so I put in a bid too -- it upped the bid, and it let everyone know that anyone could bid on anyone," Rosenbaum said.In the past, the auction had been geared exclusively toward a heterosexual lifestyle. After identifying the exclusivity of the event, this year's organizers contacted many gay men who are at ease with their sexuality and invited them to be one of the featured bachelors or to attend the auction and bid. The audience was very receptive to the same-sex bidding, clapping and cheering enthusiastically. Meringolo said that no questions or problems surfaced in response to the same-sex bidding. Rosenbaum said. "Hopefully, in the future, there will be gay men bidding at the auction, not only as a deliberate and necessary way of asserting their presence, but because they will know it is a legitimate place to find a date."Source: The Brandeis JusticeBlack Students Racist Against Other Black StudentsThree University of Mississippi students have been charged with making racially-based attacks. The University Judicial Board will convene before the end of the month to decide their punishment. There was widespread shock that the students who allegedly wrote racial slurs on the dormitory doors of black students were also black. "It's kind of a surprise. The issue came out, and we thought it was racism, but it was someone of our own race. That's a disappointment," said senior Renee Mosley from Greenville, Miss.On Nov. 6, two black freshman had discovered "F----- N-----," "F----- Hoe N-----," and a tree and a noose drawn on their residence hall doors. Three other student's doors, the elevator and a wall were marked with obscene language and rough images and references to genitalia. There have been five charges made against the students including flagrant disrespect of a member of the university community, harassment and disorderly conduct, vandalism, disregard for university authority and abuse of the university judicial system. The accused claim the entire incident was a prank against acquaintances. The University will not bring the case to criminal courts, citing that most on-campus crimes have been dealt with internally. Chancellor Robert Khayat said, "This is a community issue. This is not, at this point, an issue for the courts."There have been complaints that the accused students are being treated lightly because of their race. Khayat responded that the University would have had the exact same reaction if the students had been white. "I'm confident it would also have gone through the student judiciary," Khayat said.Source: The Daily Mississippian
(01/15/03 12:00am)
Author: Andrea La Rocca For the new year of 2003, you resolved to work out more often and lose your beer belly (ah, yes, the freshman fifteen) in time for spring skiing. But since J-term started, you've partied nearly every night and have barely been able to drag yourself to class, let alone to the gym.Or, perhaps, you resolved to be less stressed; until, of course, you realized that enrolling in organic chemistry for Winter Term was the worst mistake of your life. Maybe you just resolved to be happier, more content and more relaxed; and maybe your Saturday morning walk-of-shame left you with D) none of the above. Is 2003 already a bust? Not at all! Try the Middlebury way to lose weight, reduce stress, and feel better. How? Sex. More sex. Lots of sex. Keeping warm under the sheets sex. Part of the reason you never make it to the gym is because you don't want to get out of your warm bed. So stay there and burn calories at the same time. Half an hour of sex burns 150 calories, which is comparable to half an hour of weight training (burns 153 calories) or even half an hour of McCullough dancing (burns 129 calories). And that's just sex at a moderate level; for all you kinky Midd-kids out there, the exercise is even better. Sex provides the same benefits as any workout, including improved circulation, lowered cholesterol and the release of endorphins (those things that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside).Speaking of which, stop studying orgo and make some chemistry with another Middkid instead--the sex will reduce your stress. Al Green knew what he was talking about: studies show that people who frequently "get it on" deal with stress more effectively. Plus, sex will help you sleep better at night, which makes you more able to handle the coming day. You will also get the added benefit of making a new friend when you wake up with your random hook-up the next morning.Last but not least, the intimacy of sex will increase your sense of well-being and overall happiness. Women are especially affected by sex. As crazy as it sounds, a S.U.N.Y. study reports that women who frequently come in contact with semen are less depressed than those who infrequently do. The catch, though, is that the intimacy that can cause this boost in your well-being can only be achieved in a secure, lasting relationship. There is no way around it -- the Saturday morning walk-of-shame is still going to leave you feeling, well, shameful.So, Middlebury, if you want to lose weight, reduce your stress and be happier in 2003, resolve to have more sex this year. Lots more. Sounds like a resolution you can keep, right? Sure, unless you're like the junior who responded with the exasperated, "What do you think I've been trying to do for the last three years???"All facts and figures are from "Ï5 Reasons Sex is Good For You" by Laura Snyder.
(11/20/02 12:00am)
Author: Andre La Rocca "Midd-woman seeking Midd- man: I am intelligent, fun, beautiful and from just outside of Boston. Looking for Midd-man to keep me warm during the long winter nights and to have a committed relationship with. Find me on People Finder under N. E. Female.""Midd-man seeking Midd- woman: I am funny, athletic and proudly from New Jersey. Looking for a Midd-woman who wants to study some sexual chemistry and be my friend (with benefits) and possibly more (friend with more benefits). Find me on People Finder under N.E. Male."With over 2,000 students that are often labeled as "from the same mold," with a high marriage statistic, and with an undeniable love of the word "sex," Middlebury should be a hotbed for dating. But something stands between us and relationship bliss — oh wait, that's it: the relationship!Midd-kids just aren't all on the same page when it comes to relationships. Or rather, Midd-women and Midd-men aren't even in the same book. We're the perfect campus in terms of matching qualities — attractive, smart, fun, outdoorsy — but like their differing viewpoints on "sex," Middlebury men and women split when it comes to actually making the match."Why do you think I date a guy off-campus?" one female junior rhetorically asks and then points at a smiling Middlebury couple getting breakfast together. "Middlebury relationships exist, and when they do, they're usually great," she explains. "But most of the guys out there are great people and great friends, but bad boyfriends because they don't know what they want yet. And I do know: I want a relationship."The response? "College is for testing, for trying out, for seeing what's out there. I don't want to be tied down now — I'm going to be tied down the rest of my life," says a male sophomore. "The point of now is to just have fun."Yes, it's the argument of the sexes, and yes, it exists at Middlebury. What's specific to our campus, though, is that the argument seems to prevent relationships, that there's no middle ground that we meet on. Is there hope? Yes, says an experienced senior: "You definitely experience more than your fair share of relationship s**t at Middlebury, but eventually, you all grow up a little more and the relationships happen where you never thought they would. And they are worth the wait." In words of "The Sweetest Thing", "Mr. Right Now" deserves a chance because someday, the "now" fades away and he becomes "Mr. Right." So hold off on the personal ads for now and give that Middlebury relationship one more try. After all, it is going to be a long, cold winter, and body heat is so much more effective than hot chocolate…
(11/20/02 12:00am)
Author: Abbie Beane "College is a non-stop whirlwind of excitement and IM, punctuated by hook-ups, drunken hook-ups and failed attempts at hooking-up. There are plenty of aspects of college other than sex and alcohol, but those are the two that result in the most noise.""You will study. You will forget everything you've learned. You will study again. You will keep forgetting. You will manage to squeak by anyway."These are the insightful and inspiring words of wisdom offered by Steve Hofstetter, a 2002 graduate of Columbia University, sports humor writer and recent author of "Student Body Shots," described as "a sarcastic look at the best 4 to 6 years of your life." A book that strips away weak and clichéd college humor, "Student" exposes the bare bones of a distorted world with its own language, twisted sleeping patterns and bizarre social rituals.As Hofstetter simply and modestly puts it, the reason this book is so hilarious is because "it's true" and people tend to laugh hardest at situations they can relate to. Isn't it comforting to know that there is someone else out there who can never seem to put their life in order, remember the weekend or stay awake in class?Hofstetter touches on most of these areas and much more, ranging from raunchy to innocent daily foibles and covering every politically correct topic in between. On top of that, his sense of irony is incorrigible.The other particularly excellent aspect of this book is that it sympathizes with the college student's short attention span, breaking the book up into 10 categories, from social life to facilities, and then further breaking these up into sub-heads at each turn of the page. For these minor topics, Hofstetter comments on everything from laundry to gambling to bars to pathetic studying habits. That way, if you're one of those college students who likes short chapters, reading one page per sitting or just hates reading in general, this is the book for you. In fact, it need not even be thought of as a book but a collection of funny quips that jab at college life and all of the beasts it entails.Hofstetter even throws a little poetry into the mix, which is not exclusive to English majors and artistic types—crude humor such as "I Killed My RA Today" and "Your Fat Friend," which he reminds us is only meant as an affront to fat people with bad personalities.Hofstetter commiserates with students on so many levels. And he does a decent job avoiding the trite jokes and broad generalizations about college that have already been chewed up and spit out too. Instead he just tells it like it is, or was, in his case, writing a book on specifics with a new, unsweetened flavor that evokes age-old college past-times and is easy to digest.Remember moving in? Hofstetter asks us how we could forget. "Orientation is a bad name for a week when everyone parties and has no classes. If I've learned anything it's that you're bound to wake up very disoriented."And as for your first conversation with the opposite sex, "it is usually the best you will have with them. 'We stayed up until sunrise just talking.' True. But that's because you had 20 years to talk about. The problem now is that you covered your whole life in one night, and now you're left with nothing for the rest of your friendship. 'He just doesn't open up anymore.' No, he's open—he's just got nothing left inside."And then, of course, Hofstetter shares with us some of his thoughts on annoying, conventional people. The "uber-freshman": He has an ID that looks nothing like him, drinks three beers past his tolerance, has the poster of John Belushi with the T-shirt that says "college" up on his wall and Dave Matthews MP3s on loop. "Or are you in a class with that one really unique guy who tries to find all of the vintage clothes he can because it makes him stand out from the rest of the crowd? I'm in a class with thirty-eight of them," says Hofstetter. On the daily grind, Hofstetter sympathizes, "Seeing some people in a towel is a good thing. But for the rest of you, have some respect for your hall-mates and change in the bathroom. Nothing says good morning like a fat wet guy in a mini-towel."Hofstetter also reminds us not to use words like "sketchy" and "tool" when at home. "That's why I don't go home anymore. Because when I do, no one understands me." Other bits of advice? "If you finish finals early, keep your mouth shut. You may think it's cool, but there is nothing other people hate more than the guy who finishes all of his work first. Walk up to anyone and say, 'I don't have finals and I kicked your baby brother in his stupid fat head.' 'What?' they'll say. 'You don't have finals?'" And lastly, "No offense to anyone, but if you don't date much in college, then you won't date much after college. Think of the situation you've been given. You live in a one-mile area that consists of thousands of members of the opposite sex, 99% of whom aren't married, and all within four years of your age. If that's not enough, you're put in small rooms with these people for four months and then given a new set of people for the next four months and this happens eight times. No one has an unlisted phone number and everyone eats in the same place. Members of the opposite sex are given a lot of alcohol, and are all hanging out in the same five places every night. Face it, if you can't score now, give up."But at the end of the day, Hofstetter says that even careers in finance won't kill us, as we've spent the last four years drinking ourselves to sleep on weekends, subsisting on pizza and Chinese food, taking to studying on weekdays and braving communal bathrooms even if we forgot our shower shoes.In the end, "College is really just like a quilt where everything is interwoven and it's more aesthetic than it is useful."So invest some more of your time in procrastination and read Hofstetter's book, or short compilation of sarcastic remarks, if you prefer to avoid the "B word."
(11/20/02 12:00am)
Author: Khairani Barokka "You need culture, 'cause you're in the mountains!" emcee Damian Washington '03 said to a packed and cheering McCullough audience at the annual International Students' Organization (ISO) Cultural Show last Friday. If they needed it, they certainly got it — with a twist. The ISO show brought over two hours of poetry, skits, dances, songs and fashion from traditions around the world to Middlebury. The show's title, "Mars and Venus," gave away the theme of the night: the two sexes. This theme allowed for great diversity in performance style, including everything from a serene Swedish celebration of Santa Lucia to a decidedly, ahem, expressive Nicaraguan fertility dance.Divided into sections representing each region of the world, the show of 21 performances began with South Asia and a burst of color and movement. Then the Cultural Show transformed into the groove of the Caribbean and lit up the stage with Latin America's lively passion. The following segment showed North American culture beyond, as Washington said, "cheeseburgers and fat people." After the intermission, performances displayed a potpourri of traditions from Europe and Russia, an energetic African beat and, finally, a representation of both traditional and modern East Asia. The two solo performers of the show held their own on stage effortlessly, as Spanish Department Teaching Assstant Maria Jose Escudero sang the Spanish "Corazon Congelador" and Natalie Fisher '06 gave a hip poetry reading for the Caribbean section, comparing love to such foods as "mango in the summertime."Fashions were proudly paraded in the South Asian, European, African and East Asian segments by smiling ISO members. They wore bright saris and kurtas (tunics), showed off European formal wear in long dresses and suits and donned bright African styles and East Asian outfits from kimonos to funky jackets. The long-standing relationships between Mars and Venus were played out in strikingly similar ways across the continents, with models acting out playful acts on the catwalk, most of which seemed to demonstrate the eternal domination of woman over man. The skit "Who the Hell is Kim?" performed to the song of the same name, was a fun take on that female-male sense of domination, as Jan'l Hastings-Robinson '03 persistently questioned a hapless Calvin Wallace, Jr. '04 to a Caribbean beat. The other two skits were no less entertaining. The Russian skit incorporated centuries of Russian history. Each character, introduced by Professor of Russian Sergei Davydov, dressed as a figure in Russian culture past and present, including Pushkin, Yuri Gagarin (first astronaut in space), a young Russian clubber and Nabokov's Lolita, all with a dance music backdrop. And the African skit, in which a schoolboy played by David Tswamuno '06 gets revenge on his classroom tormentors, lit up the stage, full of rhythm and dancing.But what would a cultural show be without dances? Andaleeb Choudhury '03 whirled across the stage in a frenzy of motion. This deliberately contrasted with the languid movements of Kristiaan Joseph '06 in the South Asian opening segment "Manmohini." The animated dance segment "Chunari Chunari" involved lively, constantly moving performers of both sexes, was expressive of the South Asia's male-female interactions and was one of the night's highlights. The Maypole Dance from Nicaragua was the talk of McCullough as the maypole became a symbol of fertility, and the spirited, sexy moves of the dancers certainly emphasized this point. There were also impressive performances of Argentinean tango, North America segment, Asian hip-hop and a Bulgarian folk dance by Micou Apostolov '06 and friends.Audience member Ignas Brazauskas '05 described the Cultural Show as "beautiful, nice." Performer Annelise Joseph '04 said that it was her second time performing in the show, and that she intends to do so again. "It was great working with the people, I had a lot of fun. They put out a good show." Madiha Tariq '04, who performed in several sections, agreed: "Considering the fact that a lot of the groups put things together at the last minute, it was a pretty good show." She did, however, lament the various technical mishaps that occurred during the show. The ISO show could certainly have done with some polishing — the musical technicians were at fault more than a few times by speeding up, delaying or pausing songs at unfortunate times, there were a few minor emcee blunders and a microphone problem or two. But otherwise, the ISO proved that global cultures do exist in the mountains of Vermont, and most importantly, that everyone can have fun, whether watching performances of cultural traditions in action or bringing them to the stage.
(11/13/02 12:00am)
Author: Suzanne Moses Senior Zoe Anastassiou dared her audience to "veer from what's neutral" in "Tell me Something Pretty," a production of six provocative one-act plays, directed by Claire Wyckoff '03 and Kayte Spector '04. Anasttassiou chose scenes, along with the directors and faculty advisers, for this 700-level project centering on themes of gender, cross-gendering and sexuality.The audience felt challenged to examine its comfort level with the play's material as it walked through the door. In an attempt to reflect the relaxed attitude of today's sexual culture, actresses, dressed in pink, and actors, clad in blue, shifted in sensual poses to a thumping techno beat as the play began.In "Hurly Burly" by playwright David Rabe, Eddie (Annastassiou) and Phil (Dan Pruksarnukul '04) complained about Phil's wife while indulging themselves in designer drugs. "Women of Manhattan" by playwright John Patrick Shanley overcompensated for the overwhelming masculinity of the latter with Rhonda (Annastassiou) and Billie (Becky Martin '04), entertaining themselves by dressing lavishly.However, a night that began with the statement "F--k the men" ended with the question "Where's the men?" These ladies explored their femininity while discussing their somewhat shallow disappointments in life. "Never Land" began with Micheal, initially acted by Spector, playfully seducing Elizabeth, initially played by Annastassiou, during a French lesson. However, the scene concluded with Micheal, now performed by Annastassiou, ordering Elizabeth, acted by Spector, to give him fellatio. Mother (John Stokvis '05) and Grandma (Pruksarnukul) imparted their wisdom to Lil'bit (Anastassiou) regarding men in "How I Learned to Drive" by Paula Vogel, but disagreed on the degree of truth they chose to relay to this young girl. Maureen (Martin) abandons Mag (Anastassiou), an elderly lady, for a love interest in "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" by Martin McDonagh. The pathos the audience felt swang from Maureen to Mag as it became apparent that Maureen abuses this meddlesome, aged woman. The production concluded with Starbuck (Stokvis), a loner in pursuit of his dreams, giving hope to Lizzie (Anastassiou), a plain girl, in "The Rainmaker" by Richard Nash.After two weeks of rehearsal, faculty advisers pushed the group to choose a new group of scenes that were more supportive of Anastassiou's senior work. As a result, the four weeks of rehearsal that remained pushed the troupe to work even harder. Regardless of this limited time period, the actors pulled these scenes together to create "meaningful theater."As the players assumed roles of the opposite sex, they strove to find their real character instead of sinking into the characteristic gestures of that gender. Moreover, as Anastassiou explained, they understood that they would not try to convince the audience that they had evolved into the opposite sex; the players wanted to see them acting for that role.I realized that, particularly in the most striking scene of "Never Land," the actors playing opposite sexes were performing their perception of the opposite sex. This added yet another question, "How do we perceive ourselves and how do we perceive the opposite sex?", to the accumulating queries that emerged from the play.Anastassiou undoubtedly pushed the limits with "Tell Me Something Pretty." Her versatility as an actress, performing in every scene, articulated the true breadth of her talent.
(11/13/02 12:00am)
Author: [no author name found] Like most Middlebury students, I too was disappointed by the destruction of the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (moqa) closet, but I disagree with some of the reaction pieces that have appeared in The Middlebury Campus. Last week, Chris Atwood '03 wrote in [Student Sparks Discussion on Homophobia at Middlebury, Nov. 6] to encourage more campus dialogue on issues related to the vandalism that took place, and while I agree that group discussions are the backbone of our education at Middlebury, some of his points were not entirely realistic. In his third paragraph, he wrote: "How many of us thought about how it would feel to be a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer (GLBTQ) student at a college that strives for diversity but still houses squeamishness or apathy toward anything gay?" Let me first ask what he means by "anything gay." Does he mean gay people? He admits that "many people now know an openly gay or lesbian person," and I would like to echo this by saying that the vast majority of Middlebury students respect the way in which their peers choose to live. If by "anything gay" he means a sexually-explicit parade or a closet in the middle of a field that is painted with sex terms and slurs, then he should understand why a handful of people might be "squeamish." I would like to immediately point out that there are many people who would "squeam" at the sight of a monument decorated with heterosexual terms or a parade featuring scantly-clad heterosexuals. As far as "apathy" goes, what does he want from the general public? Did he want every student and faculty member to send out a mass e-mail condemning what happened? I received three different e-mails regarding the moqa closet, which was two more than I received when a student was threatened at gunpoint and pistol-whipped last year. Did he want me to walk up to every gay person I know and say "sorry to hear about your closet"? The truth is that the moqa closet was hardly an "apathetic" event on campus; in fact, it was one of the most widely discussed occurrences so far this year, and I can honestly say that I both participated in and overheard many thoughtful discussions regarding sexuality on campus following the incident. I would also like to respond to Atwood's claim that "President McCardell overlooked the real reason the closet was destroyed: It was not heterosexual." Earlier this year, a card-swiper, a dining hall window and an ice cream machine were vandalized. Were those things heterosexual? Unless Atwood knows the closet vandals and is familiar with their intentions, then I think he has no right to speculate on "the real reason that the closet was destroyed." Many people on campus, if not the majority, think that the "real reason the closet was destroyed" was because some jerks were ridiculously drunk and were not thinking about the consequences of their actions. Atwood also claims that "certain individuals chose to pull apart, tear down and dismantle the closet, not because they merely disagreed, but because they were repulsed, revolted and sickened by the existence of GLBTQ people." This incredibly strong statement represents many of the problems that I have found in the campus reaction to the closet vandalism. Who's to say that someone was not "repulsed" by the closet because they did not like its location in the middle of the field? While I agree that it might have been an act of hate, I also realize that there is not enough evidence to make any sort of conclusion. That said, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Middlebury is an open-minded school in which people of all sexual orientations are respected.Bryan Goldberg '05
(11/06/02 12:00am)
Author: Christian Holt Two weekends ago, I went shopping. This only occurs twice a year. Every time I'm either conned into doing it by an attractive friend of the opposite sex, or have run out of deodorant. Lucky for her, it was only the former. So my friends Kate and Maggie went with me to the mall. Kate's objective, and I'm not making this up, was to buy a thong. I know what you're thinking, so stop. She needed it for her school's fundraiser, an annual fashion show. It was for a good cause, you pervert.The three of us went down to the local Victoria's Secret. I, like many men, consider this a holy shrine. It is a fact of life that a man would love to be taken to Victoria's Secret, with the intention of his female companion modeling the clothes. Furthermore, most guys believe that the models in the magazines actually live in the store, walking up and the down the aisles asking, "Does my bikini line show?" The models all have hips the size of paper, and after a hard day of work are stacked neatly and pressed overnight. So Kate, Maggie and I walked around the store. We walked around aisle after aisle of underwear. Victoria's big secret is apparently a fondness for undergarments. Freud would have had a ball. The store is swathed in pink. Everything is pink, the walls, the hangers, the floor, some of the clothes … the lips on model Tyra Banks. Where was I again?Thongs! That's right! Well, Kate finally found the thongs. We actually had walked past them before, mistaking them for bracelets. Being the complete social idiot that I am, I held up the garments in question for further examination. Some were done pink, some were black and some were red. And some had zebra stripes on them. It seemed ludicrous to me that an entire rare animal was killed for the hair thin piece of garment of the wearer. Fortunately, I examined this further, and realized it was not real zebra. By then, however, every employee in the store was giving me looks. So I put away my magnifying glass. Kate wouldn't actually let me see her wear the thongs in question. But she bought a few, all reasonably priced at $15. That means she gets one square centimeter of clothing for every dollar. Sounds like a deal to me. Especially since it only costs a dollar extra if you want something classy written on it, like "Angel."Waiting in line, our shopping done, one thing caught my eye. They had ads in the store, hung right above the cashiers. Pictured was a beautiful woman in her under-roos, with the slogan "very sexy." I thought to myself, thank god they told me. I never would have figured it out otherwise. Victoria's Secret's ad department: a house full of geniuses. They ensure that those buyers who are unsure of the attractiveness of a model are reminded, that yes indeed, they are pleasing. To further drive their point home, maybe next time they could have bright neon signs or heck, signs in Braille. Needless to say, I made a complete jerk of myself in the store. And the employees didn't like me much. My comment of "I'm not getting the support I need, do you have anything in my size?" was met with blank stares. And my asking "Where is the underwear section?" led to my being escorted out. This experience has disproved my deep belief that underwear, no matter what the circumstances, is always funny.
