The Week in ReviewCan We Leave Him Behind? In the hour-and-a-half it took Professor Alexander Stephan to convince a room full of leftists that people who buy works of the Left Behind book series also voted for George W. Bush in last year's election, the secularists in attendance could have written a condescending letter to the Kansas Board of Education, rhymed "intelligent design" a dozen times for upcoming protests, connected the Bush family to the formation of Israel in less than six degrees, and finished the entirety of Revelation. The Review dreads the day when Stephan makes a presentation of sound Biblical and scholarly merit, lest the Christ return before he finishes. My Big Fat Asian Lesbian Wedding Recently, the Hopkins Center had a special showing of the 2004 independent film Saving Face. This movie, directed by gay Asian-American woman Alice Wu, centers around (shockingly), a gay Asian-American woman. True to the fashion of many gay-oriented films, television shows and diversity seminars, the main focus of Saving Face is the struggle of being gay in a straight society. The main character, Wil Pang, is a young Chinese lesbian working as a surgeon in New York. Wil begins dating another lesbian Asian woman, but must hide this relationship from her intolerant family. However, she realizes that she cannot maintain the charade forever, and is forced to divulge her lesbian-ness at an inopportune time. This is clearly intended to be "heart-warming" and "hilarious," but it comes across as trite. Wil's mother Ma is pregnant at forty-eight by a much younger man, and for some contrived reason that isn't worth recounting, Ma is forced to live with Wil. Ma goes through the awkwardness of dating older men in order to find a provider for her future child. She settles to marry a man she doesn't love, but, predictably, flees the altar in dramatic fashion, only to end up with the younger man that impregnated her. Wil's grandparents serve as the traditionalist figures in contrast to the progressive characters Wil and Ma. The attempt at comic relief is embodied by Wil's neighbor Jay, who fulfills the role of the "token black guy," whose exaggerated delivery and inane attempts at physical comedy end up detracting from the film. The supposed hook of Saving Face is that it is not only about lesbianism, but Asian lesbianism. As a result, the film spends a large amount of time focusing on Chinese culture. Half of the film is in English and half in Chinese with English subtitles. The transition from spoken English to Chinese with subtitles frequently occurs in a conversation; one member of the family speaks in Chinese while the other speaks in English. This is supposed to be representative of Chinese life, but ends up making the movie difficult to follow. Overall, this film is derived to a large degree from previous romantic comedies. It is, at best, a more progressive remake of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Saving Face is nothing new, only a hodgepodge of themes from other movies put together with a new setting and characters. Porn's Pay Gap On October 26, Dr. Chyng Feng Sun of NYU presented a lecture entitled "Fantasies Matter: Pornography, Sexualities, and Relationship," designed to preview her upcoming documentary of the same name. As a result, the Dartmouth community is now one step closer to that pot of gold at the end of Professor Travis' proverbial "rainbow of sexuality." The audience was taken on an emotional ride, which did not disappoint thanks to its many climaxes. There was sympathy: a porn actress was forced by harassment to drop out of college after classmates discovered her job (which, ironically, involves being harassed for money). There was humor: a film clip showed another porn actress, who defined double anal as "two in the butt," before proceeding to giggle along with the audience. And there was social commentary: a teenage girl complained in a clip about growing up in a "sexualized society," which explained why she was sexually active at age 14. Disappointingly, Dr. Sun did not reach any sweeping conclusions on pornography's role in society. The edification of less enlightened audience members was limited to definitions of graphic sexual terms they might not have been acquainted with. Dr. Sun also provided a handout on industry finances, which included a "Porn star pay scale per scene." For example, a female performer looking to make $2,000 should film a gang bang with 10 men. Despite Dr. Sun's subtle message of female subservience in pornography, the male performer clearly suffers most, earning only $350-500 "no matter what kind of sex acts." This needs to be addressed, as male performers undeniably deliver the meat. The complete pay scale can be found at Career Services. The lecture is best summarized by the poignant quote from a pornographer that Dr. Sun was generous enough to share: "Women only have 3 holes." Later that afternoon, Tuck Professor Joseph Massey delivered a lecture called "Riding the Chinese Dragon." The events were unrelated. You Are What You Eat Prolific science fiction novelist, Samuel "Chip" Delany, spoke through his puffy white beard to a large audience in Filene Auditorium on October 31. His introduction by religion department chair Susan Ackerman focused on Delany's accomplishments as a writer: his first novel was published at the age of nineteen, he writes with an "allusive poetic density," and Umberto Eco believes that Delany is "one of the most important speculative fiction writers, who has invented a whole new style." After Ackerman's introduction, the crowd prepared itself to hear the writer speak. Delany, however, preferred to play the part of a pseudo-scientist. The first half of his speech, which he called "The Gamble," focused on the ways in which current medical research into the transmission of AIDS via receptive oral sex is based on hearsay. The author bemoaned the fact that too few studies have been done with "operationalized evidence." Rather abruptly, Delany switched the focus of his talk to the medicine he had learned while typing his daughter's ninth grade biology papers. After all of the facts and figures that had bombarded them in the first half of the talk, the audience did not know how to react to Delany's statement that the last time someone he did not know "came in his ass" was in 1981. He described the setting for this encounter: a 42nd Street sex den called Fantasyland. The admission was $3, Delany recalled, and he had visited dozens of times. Delany went on to describe just how much gay sex he enjoyed as a college-age student. He attributed the fact that he wrote five novels between the ages of nineteen and twenty-six to the number of times he had been able to indulge in his appetitive cravings for sex on a daily basis. A typical day would begin with Delany cooking breakfast for his wife, who knew about his habits. After sending her off to work and getting in two good hours of writing, Delany would saunter over to the bathroom of a Second Avenue subway station to have sex with two or three different strangers. After four more hours of writing in the afternoon, the tired writer would go out to another locale to enjoy sex with another half-dozen men that he did not know. After picking up the groceries on his way home, Delany would have dinner cooking when his wife returned from work. Evenings involved longer trips when Delany would have sex with ten to twelve other men. This pattern, he stressed, was a normal day. The number would be higher when he really wanted sex. Since his twenties, Delany has decided that he prefers being fellated to anal intercourse. Since he estimates that he has received approximately eight thousand blowjobs in the last twenty years and the state of medical research surrounding the transmission of AIDS in oral sex is so poor, Delany's lifestyle is therefore a gamble. He claimed not to be suggesting that there was no causal link between transmission of AIDS and receptive oral sex, and he fiercely rebuked an audience member who suggested that he was implicitly doing so. However, he did confess to another interlocutor that he might also have been motivated to speak in order to find more people to go down on him later that evening. In the end, Delany was left to defend the fact that he felt no obligation to be a model gay man. He had made it clear that, though he has had the same life partner for the last sixteen years, visiting his "f*** buddy" in upstate New York a few times a year was a change of pace that he enjoyed. The best words to describe Samuel Delany are his own: "[he is] a bad gay man." Tacos for Relief Dartmouth's local chapter of the Aztec separatist group Movimento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) recently held a taco sale for Hurricane Relief. MEChA's founding document, "El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan," states that the organization's primary goal is to return the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to Mexico. In a campus blitz MEChA quoted Dartmouth students as saying that their tacos are "AMAZING," and while one must concede that while the Chicanos provide the best example of Mexican cuisine to be found in the Upper Valley, it lacked the desired flavor. Sadly, group members were unable to prove the "millionth taco theory" conclusively at the sale. In Defense of Tradition Matthew Bartek '05 recently published a column in the Daily Dartmouth reflecting on the Indian symbol and the Review's marketing of merchandise that still bears the traditional symbol of Dartmouth. Unfortunately, in doing so, Bartek made several factual errors. First, he claims that "the Indian symbol did not appear until the 1920s when a reporter journeyed up to Hanover, NH and coined the term." Had Mr. Bartek researched a little more thoroughly he would have found that Indian canes were given to graduating seniors as early as 1898, and that one of the oldest of these canes resides in Dartmouth's own Baker Library. In fact, if he had researched even further he would have found that the Indian cheer "Wah-Hoo-Wah" dates back much earlier, to a student committee decision in 1879. He also claims that it is "certainly true" that American Indians find the Indian symbol offensive. This claim, however, is refuted by statistical evidence from Sports Illustrated, which found that 83% of Indians support the continued use of Indians as team mascots, and TDR, who polled 200 Indian tribal chiefs and found that these chiefs supported Dartmouth's use of the Indian symbol by a ratio of ten to one. While we would all like to thank Mr. Bartek for his concern for the sensitivities of the American Indian, we would hope that in the future, he better researches his point and does not speak broadly for an ethnicity of which he is not a part. Hudak '07 Thwarted Yet Again at Food Court As many readers will remember from tales of his past exploits, the Review President Kevin Hudak '07 is interested in both great value and convenience. Recently, in an attempt to combine the two, the gastronomic titan ordered the "double meal deal" When contacted for comment, Larry would only respond "Hello, friend." Hudak, although disappointed by the incident, continues to hold Food Court in high regard. "I'm not going to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Food Court will continue to evolve to serve its users' needs as all great institutions do." Pumpkin Post & Riposte Late on the afternoon of November 1, TDR Executive Editor Scott L. Glabe '06, resident of Hitchcock 206, began the following exchange after receiving a e-mail message from the community director of the Hitchcock-Massachusetts Row cluster concerning the controversial placement of a seasonal vegetable belonging to his roommate: From: Samantha M. Ivery Subject: pumpkin To: XXX, Scott L. Glabe Pending a response from Celone, no action concerning the pumpkin had been taken when Glabe and his roommate received the following message from Ivery late in the evening on November 2 (Associate Director of Residential Education Jeff DeWitt and Class of 2006 Dean Teoby Gomez were carbon copied on the email): From: Samantha M. Ivery Subject: Policy Violation To: XXX, Scott L. Glabe Cc: Jeffrey A. DeWitt, Teoby A. Gomez Less than an hour after this message was sent, a Safety and Security Officer arrived at Glabe's room to investigate a report of an object being inappropriately displayed from college property. Glabe's roommate had by this time removed the pumpkin and replaced the screen, but the officer insisted upon filing a report. At press time, Glabe's roommate had agreed to meet with Ivery, although it is unclear what would be discussed at such a meeting; as policy violations 2, 3, and 4 have been rendered moot, while policy violation 1 did not in fact occur (lighting the pumpkin outside did not violate the open flame policy). Not Smart With Their Parts A recent headline in the Daily Dartmouth blared "Sexual Violence Mentors Plan for Winter." No doubt inadvertently placed by a staff member who missed the "Confidential" label, the tag may serve as a warning to all members of the campus community. We at the Review have published this as a public service announcement; we wish to warn all of our female readers of the violent plots being formulated against them, and hope that the Daily D will apologize for its facilitating role in helping the shadowy cabal of sexual violence mentors to "[recruit] additional male members, particularly those who are leaders of Greek organizations." College Hires McKinsey President Wright recently announced during his address at the general faculty meeting that the College had hired McKinsey, a management consulting firm, to provide advice on the status of Dartmouth's bloated administrative infrastructure. The study will seek to "break down silos, address redundancy, [ascertain] how we can improve services for students and faculty and strengthen internal coordination." May we offer a suggestion? Instead of paying thousands to an outside consulting firm, perhaps the administration would be better off purchasing a $40 subscription to The Dartmouth Review. B*tches in the Basement On Wednesday, October 26, the Alpha Delta fraternity hosted a discussion on sexual assault in fraternity basements titled, "B*tches in the Basement," a title reminiscent of another Alpha Delta discussion, "Don't Yell Fag from the Porch." Apparently the "hook" worked, the discussion was packed, then again, the discussion was required for a number of '08 pledges. Led by a six-person panel that drew upon students fulfilling a number of collegiate stereotypes, the discussion touched upon topics ranging from racism to rape. Virulent debate ensued along fairly well defined sides: men vs. women, and the primary outcome was that everyone was glad they had the opportunity to have their say. |
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