Black robes and blood

05 Apr 2011, Posted by Ariel Smallwood in Backpages, 0 Comments

We are programmed to be obsessed with secrets. Big ones, small ones—we love them all. Sometimes, we even create our own secrets just to share them. In our childhood, the biggest secrets are those that are unsolved. Does he have cooties? Are there monsters under our beds? These secrets fueled our desire to form alliances and helped us become socialized.

In our teenage years, secrets became more vicious, more calculated. Secrets in high school are never supposed to remain secrets. They are supposed to be revealed in the most embarrassing way possible. The following approach is what I like to call “the lion pride”: A male of popular status is dating a female of equal status but has the opportunity to date above his status. He breaks up with the former female in the cafeteria to prove his worthiness of the latter female. Sounds pretty animalistic right? Cue a Ke$ha song.

What happens when we get to college is something drastically different than what we do in high school. We want to protect the secrets from our past, but we realize that it’s time to start protecting secrets from our present. We want to protect our secrets so badly that we risk our relationships with others. The ultimate secret is a secret society. Rumor has it that four operate on campus: Old Trinity Club, CI, LH, and TS. Those of us outside of the organizations have yet to figure out what the acronyms stand for, but that means that this secret is being kept very well.

What is the allure of secret societies? Former President George W. Bush and presidential hopeful John Kerry were both members of Yale’s Skull and Bones, perhaps the most famous secret society. It can be argued that these societies are able to use connections to catapult people to fame and success.

I disagree. Secret societies are meant to fill a void that many people feel in college: the need for honesty. Our college friends do not know us as well as our friends from back home do, and we try and portray an image of perfection all of the time. We admit our hopes and dreams but fail to talk about our fears. At a school like Duke, students have their resumes in their pockets ready to validate their existence because in the back of their minds they are longing for more substance and meaning in their relationships.

Yes, secret societies may be cool because they involved the cover of night, blood oaths, and creepy rituals (or pacing the quad on the last day of classes). But, their true appeal is as an outlet for the general student body’s imperfections. What are my imperfections? I have none. I got into Duke.

The problem with no name

22 Mar 2011, Posted by Ariel Smallwood in Backpages, 1 Comments

It’s time to get serious. Last week, I submitted a blog post about National Lemme Smang It day. I joked about a made-up holiday with a small but passionate following—my editor was not pleased. She thought the word “smang”, a combination of the words “smash” and “bang” popularized by Yung Humma and Flynt Flossy, represents female objectification. With that, I disagree.

I am a woman, but I am not a “feminist.” In fact, I am anti-feminism. Before you crucify me and force me to wear a scarlet letter, let me explain. “Feminism” has multiple definitions that often change with the hour. “Feminism” is a movement characterized by women who hate men and bra burnings on the 5:00 news. This view of feminism fails to accurately capture the broad spectrum of opinions under the feminist blanket. Nonetheless, it prevails.

To me, being a feminist is much different from believing in feminism. Believing in feminism implies a specific set of norms and beliefs that apply to a group of people, whereas being a feminist is rooted in a self-created set of principles about the life that you want to live.

Now that I have made my peace with feminism, it’s time to discuss the victimized man. Women that only discuss the woman as the victim are only perpetuating the type of demeaning interaction that they claim to abhor. They continue to lay blame on the man, which creates a cycle of mistrust between genders.

Consider the following: If a man grabbed a woman’s behind it would be considered sexual assault, but if a woman grabbed a man’s behind it would just be seen as a woman going after what she wants. As a society, we always talk about a double standard harming women but we rarely discuss when a man is victimized.

According to the Department of Justice’s 2003 National Crime Victimization Survey, 10 percent of sexual assault victims are male. I propose that instead of just focusing on the 90 percent of assault victims who are women, we should also prioritize preventing attacks against the other 10 percent. Ignoring the minority is like ignoring the problem altogether. For every 90 survivors who are empowered by prevention, 10 survivors are not receiving treatment for their physical and mental scars. Would we want to ignore 10 female survivors? My guess is no. This criticism is neither of all women who identify as feminists, nor is it a criticism of women who do not consider themselves feminists.

This is a criticism of the women who are willing to blame men for all of the issues in society. I have an obligation to keep it real, and this is only my opinion. At the end of the day, the only way that we can eliminate negative connotations from words like “smang” is to remind users that the source is not just one group of people. I can honestly say that I am guilty of smanging it, and I will continue to do so until there are open dialogues about it.

Ariel Smallwood is a Trinity sophomore. Her online column runs every Tuesday.

Starstruck

15 Mar 2011, Posted by Ariel Smallwood in Backpages, 0 Comments

Lady Gaga is one of my favorite artists. In honor of the debut of her new video, “Born This Way,” I will discuss the top five Lady Gaga songs.

The first song on the list is, “Bad Romance.” In my inner circle, “Bad Romance” is the clear frontrunner for favorite Gaga song. The allure of this tale of a toxic pre-relationship doesn’t lie solely in the song. The video and its strong images add a story, and every great song has a story.

My favorite scene in the video is when Gaga is sitting in a room by herself, crying. There is no outrageous makeup, no fireworks and no army of dancers behind her. At this moment, Lady Gaga doesn’t exist. There is only Stefani Germanotta, a New Yorker in love.

It is too real for anyone not to relate to her. That is why “Bad Romance” is number one.

Number two on the list, “Speechless,” wasn’t released as a single, but perhaps it should have been. It chronicles Gaga and her troubled relationship with both her boyfriend and her father. The lyrics offer a portrait of an insecure and troubled girl, a far cry from the over-the-top confidence of Gaga.

“Monster” discusses a situation that many college-aged women, including and perhaps especially at Duke, have faced. The song focuses on a woman leaving the club with a charismatic guy who turns out to be a disappointment. Gaga is initially put off by the man’s bravado but eventually falls into his trap where he “eats her heart” and, subsequently, her brain.

Though the literal implications of this are shocking, the metaphorical meaning epitomizes many D-floor make outs. Gaga tries to redeem herself in “Paper Gangsta” where she discusses her unwillingness to compromise the qualities she wants in a man because he has lots of cash.

She states, “I’m looking for love/not an empty page/full of stuff that means nothing/but ‘you’ve been played.’” The casual lyrics plus the intoxicating beats make this song a strong case for number four.

Finally, my fifth pick for the best Lady Gaga song is her collaboration with Beyoncé, “Telephone.” Besides the fact that the video features Gaga and B serving vengeance Kill Bill style, the song is catchy and features a harp in a non-ironic way (though I’m not too sure how you would use a harp ironically).

It expresses the way that I have felt many nights when I just want to party but some bugaboo just wont let me be (Destiny’s Child reference, oh yeah). It’s fun, whimsical, but still pretty boss.

Hopefully my countdown encouraged you expand your Gaga horizon, but please don’t listen to “Born This Way.” Please.

Ariel Smallwood is a Trinity sophomore. Her online column runs every Tuesday.

Liquid drugs

23 Feb 2011, Posted by Ariel Smallwood in Backpages, 0 Comments

Last week, I did not have a blog post. I was extremely sad to disappoint my poor reader (thanks, Mom!), but I was too sick to make it to class, much less be funny.

To get back in the swing of things, I needed a little help from an old friend. This substance is very addictive and is only made correctly in certain parts of the United States (though to be fair, I have never tried it in a European country). Its availability almost everywhere on campus just helps fuel my addiction and when I don’t get it the gods above cry tears of pain.

What is it that gives me such a good high that I chose to be a political science major? SWEET TEA.

Some of you Southerners may say, “What is ‘sweet tea’? There is only one kind of tea and it is always sweet.” To that I say, “The South will rise again”. More to the point, crossing the Mason-Dixon line means that your choice of tea consists of raspberry or Brisk.

Going to a New York restaurant and asking for sweet tea is like going to Mensa convention and asking for a Carolina graduate: People give you strange looks and ask you to leave. We may never know why sweet tea is so wonderfully delicious in the South and nonexistent everywhere else, but this exclusivity makes it taste even better.

Each sip is something to be savored and even worshipped. If sweet tea were a person, it would be a civilian who is given the Medal of Honor. Perhaps an illustration of exactly how much I like sweet tea would move this story along a little better.

At the end of the fall semester, my friends and I decided to take over a study room in Bostock (like our page—Bostock 412) to fully immerse ourselves in the experience that is finals week. We worked, we slept, we ate, and we even danced in this room for an entire week of our lives. Within the first two days of our experiment, I had consumed an entire gallon of sweet tea. Thankfully, I did not continue this habit throughout the week, but during those two days I heard an angel laugh and the music of heaven. OK, maybe I didn’t hear the music of heaven but it was still a pretty great experience. When I sip sweet tea from Alpine Bagels or Armadillo Grill, I thank my lucky starts that I go to Duke University. Even national championships (in two sports!) comes second to sweet tea in my book. And you can quote me on that.

Ariel Smallwood is a Trinity sophomore. Her online column runs every Tuesday.

Alcohol: Now more lethal than AIDS, TB and violence combined

12 Feb 2011, Posted by Ziwen Deng in Backpages, News, 0 Comments

If you know someone who is known as a drinker, it may be time for a little talk.

According to a publication released earlier today, the World Health Organization (WHO) claims that alcohol is responsible for approximately 2.5 million deaths each year, which is a higher total than—you guessed it—AIDS, tuberculosis and violence combined.

The WHO also states that alcohol is the world’s leading fatal risk factor in males 15-59, and has tried for the past year to limit consumption through increasing taxes and restricting marketing.

Though their efforts are well-meaning, you can’t help but feel that the WHO is fighting a lost cause, especially after being exposed to the environment of a place like Duke. The openness of the campus to drinking may even astound some visitors, as freshmen are basically introduced to drinking at the very onset of their college careers.

While such an atmosphere might be conducive to discovering one’s limits, it does carry a lot of the risk that the WHO warns us about. After all, who hasn’t seen a fellow student drink one too many?

The question Duke students—and the world in general, it seems—face is whether or not they can protect themselves from a fatal mistake that strikes 4% of the population each year.