By Rachel Simon and Abbey Interrante, Editors in Chief, Emerson College
By Kevin O'brien, Staff Writer, Emerson College & Will Stryker, Contributor, Emerson College
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Summary of Qualifications
Read More Here By Madelyn Reese, Staff Writer, Emerson College
The first thing I noticed was the musty air. I could barely see anything because the lights, which were fixed to flicker like torches, poorly lit the whole cavern. I held my mom’s hand as our family was wound around the path like cattle, with crying children both ahead and behind us. The parents clung to plastic soda containers that promised free refills and found themselves stuck with “commemorative” pins that they didn’t trust their children with wearing. After what seemed like miles of shuffling and complaining, I was met with what would, for the rest of my family’s Disneyland trip, be the bane of my existence: the Indiana Jones ride. It was a full ten minutes long, unheard of for most modern rides. It was supposed to be an “adventure,” filled with skeletons and evil spirits and molten lava. I approached this with confidence. I could ride California Screamin’, after all, without actually screaming once. But as we took off towards the pair of glowing eyes in the dark tunnel ahead, my head found its way into my mom’s lap, where it stayed for the rest of the ride. When the hydraulic jeeps dumped us at the exit, I tried to clear my lungs of the musty air and adjust to the searing Southern California sun. Relieved, I started walking out towards the main thoroughfare before my dad cried enthusiastically, “Let’s do it again!” Read More Here By Amanda Doughty, Staff Writer, Emerson College
“You know he has a girlfriend, right?” Actually, no, I didn’t. In the past two weeks of spending six hours a day together, it had not come up once. I guess there was no time in between practicing lines, learning choreography, and flirting- especially that last one. Maybe there’s something about playing love interests, or spending an obscene amount of time together, but the chemistry we had onstage had certainly carried offstage. Everyone in the cast noticed it; everyone involved behind the scenes was uncomfortable with it. The connection was clear and at age fifteen, it was nothing I’d ever felt before. By the time I heard about the girlfriend I was too far-gone. She was just a technicality. I let my crazy imagination come up with the idea that he’d leave his girlfriend for me, and lived in this fantasy for far too long. So I let the flirtation continue, and when he finally kissed me the girlfriend didn’t even cross my mind. But the fantasy didn’t pan out the way I’d hoped, and I ended up heartbroken. To this day, I’m pretty sure that girl doesn’t know who I am or what I’ve done. Read More Here By Maria DiPasquale, Staff Writer, Emerson College
Here’s a scene with which you might be familiar. It’s Thursday morning. I sit eating my breakfast and shamefully scrolling through each of my social media sites to see what I could have possibly missed in the 8 hours I was sleeping. As soon as I open the Instagram app, I am immediately reminded what day it is: Throwback Thursday. I scroll past grainy baby pictures, manicured prom shots, barely old party photos from last semester. Below each image is the beloved hashtag: “#tbt.” I don’t pretend to be above this. In fact, I first got started thinking about this while I was home on spring break. I had taken advantage of my boredom and my parents’ photo albums to post a couple baby pictures of myself. As I scrolled through the rest of my friends’ throwbacks, I got to thinking that all my friends were awfully fond of the past. In fact, everyone I could think of had a particular affection for nostalgia. Read More Here By Laurel Elfenbein, Contributor, Emerson College
Everyone knows that advertisements are almost everywhere we look. Would you guess that the number of ads you see a day is actually about 2,000? We spend significant parts of our lives looking at images in the media through magazines, newspapers, television, and more. American society is so focused on what is aesthetically attractive that women in the media are almost exclusively portrayed as such. Television and magazines often depict images of women that are over-sexualized, unrealistic and even photoshopped. Because of this, young womens’ expectations of their bodies and their appearances become unrealistically high, and they’re likely to develop negative body images. Everyday, we see the same kind of women in magazines -- the same thin body type, the same flawless skin, and the same perfect bone structure. Because this beauty culture is constantly portrayed in magazines, it is easy to forget that most women don’t actually look like that; in fact, not even the models in the magazines look like that naturally. Magazine images of women are largely a product of airbrushing and digital altering. For example, in 2011 L’Oreal signed Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington on to do print ad campaigns for their makeup lines Lancôme and Maybelline. The pictures of them were altered to make their skin appear flawless, which is dramatization and false advertising. Ads like these create so many problems for young women, because not only will they become dependent on wearing certain makeup brands to feel beautiful, but they will also lose confidence every time they see a blemish on their own skin. When young women see other young women with flawless skin, they believe it’s attainable, a goal which is unrealistic. Therefore these women will inherently be unhappy with themselves because it is impossible for their natural skin, even with makeup, to look like that of the women in the airbrushed, digitized images they are exposed to. Read More Here By Madelyn Reese, Staff Writer, Emerson College By Autumn Farrell, Staff Writer, Emerson College
Behind my house in the alley that smells like dryer sheets and dirt-covered toys, I lift up my blue shirt for Anthony. He reaches out two small hands, lays them on my equally small chest. He says that’s so sexy fidgets like little boys do. I let him squeeze. It hurts the tender pink skin, leaves red marks he doesn’t mean. Read More Here By Michal Goderez, Contributor, Emerson College
Ever since the book Fifty Shades of Grey hit the top of the best seller list, it's generated a lot more open discussion about BDSM and kink, but the way BDSM is portrayed in the book and most popular media is unrealistic and often harmful. I don't need to have read the book to look at the plot and see that the relationship of the two main characters is pretty much the worst example of how a Dominant/submissive relationship actually works, and this has sparked a lot of protest from BDSM advocates. The truth is, a lot of the negative perceptions and stereotypes regarding BDSM stem from a lack of knowledge of the subject. For those who don't know, there are three parts to the acronym "BDSM." Bondage/discipline means the use of ropes, handcuffs, and restraints, and the practice of using "punishment" to enforce rules and behavior. Dominance/submission refers to the simple act of having one partner behave submissively, using titles, roles, and actions, and in and of itself does not imply any acts of pain, bondage, toys, or other related fetishes. The third piece is sadism /masochism, or sadomasochism (S&M). A sadist is someone who gets pleasure from inflicting pain or seeing the pain of others, and a masochist is someone who gets pleasure from experiencing pain. Read More Here By Rachel Simon, Editor in Chief, Emerson College
Last week, the creator of Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, along with the show’s star, Kristen Bell, raised over three million dollars on Kickstarter to fund the movie version of the cancelled cult TV show. Through fan contributions and the power of the Internet, they exceeded their goal in a matter of hours, and it looks like Veronica Mars: The Movie will be coming to the big screen sometime next year. Judging from the explosion of the blog world, fans are rejoicing, the cast is psyched to reunite, and Hollywood insiders are beginning to take note of Kickstarter’s powerful new role in the film industry. There’s no question that what Thomas and Bell have accomplished is impressive. However, I believe that it’s a huge mistake. I’ve never seen Veronica Mars. I have no doubt that it’s a good show, and that many people were disappointed when it was cancelled after just three seasons. Yet if they think that a movie version based off the show is a good idea, they’re wrong. More often than not, films based off television shows fail to capture the charm and vivacity of their original forms. The movie versions are flat and uninspired, leaving the viewers with unanswered questions and unresolved feelings. Need an example? Here are three: Sex and the City. Bewitched. Avatar: The Last Airbender. There are exceptions, of course, such as last year’s great 21 Jump Street, but they are few and far between. Most likely, the devoted, intense fans that watched Veronica Mars won’t be satisfied by a movie version of their beloved TV show, and it’s doubtful that it’ll give them the fulfilling conclusion they expect. If anything, the film will probably leave them more frustrated than they were back in 2007 when the show went off the air. Read More Here |