Annual February tradition sweeps campus
To most, Valentine’s Day is the holiday, which is popularly considered to be the bane of the single person’s existence. To others, it is the reason why so many people are born in November.
February 14 takes Grinnellian awkwardness to another level. The weeks leading up to it can end up being a nasty Russian roulette of finding love. To take away from the frustration, students have taken somewhat ingenious approaches to embracing the holiday.
Some students find single to be sexy. After experiencing two Valentine’s Days in a relationship and one year clinking glasses in Spain with her “single ladies”, Asia Sample ’10 will be taking herself out to the movies to see Valentine’s Day.
“I think that the movies that come out on Valentine’s Day are exciting,” Sample said. “I’m excited to see Ashton Kutcher, fellow Iowan, on screen.” Sample’s choice reflects the tasteful perspective that seeing a movie alone can be self- rewarding. Whoever said you couldn’t be your own Valentine?
Others have taken a more daring approach—confessing their love. Harpreet Singh ‘12 will be inserting a dozen roses into the mailboxes of those he finds closest to his heart. According to Singh, during high school he kept up a regular practice of giving roses to people who had effected his life positively due to a father figure advising him to let people know he cared about them.
“I’m gonna show them, ‘Thanks. You’ve been a good friend to me,’” Singh said. He also will be leaving a note for a special someone. Singh wouldn’t reveal the person’s identity—he wanted to keep it off the record. “One person is gonna get that note that says, ‘I’m feelin’ you,” Singh said. “‘I hope you feelin’ me.’”
Jerl Fields ’11 is also writing letters to special someones— his mother and grandmother. Every year, Fields sends cards back home. “Those are the first ladies,” Field said. But one Grinnelian has taken Valentine’s Day and given it an entrepreneurial bent—a lesbian dating service. Bateman calls his quasi-business CLIT—Crazy Lesbians Introduced by Thomas.
Bateman operates under the opinion that sooner or later, throughout a women’s four years here, she eventually becomes queer. But she doesn’t know who’s queer, so in comes Bateman.
“I know a lot of people and have taken several GWSS classes. Lesbians are very likely to be found in GWSS, Theatre, Environmental Science, the Birkenstocks section of shoe stores and the flannel section of Second Mile,” Bateman said. “So, between these five general locations, I am able to find quite a large dating pool and start to introduce lesbians.”
According to Bateman, he’s had a few successful matches. Two of his friends, Erica and Becca, were CLIT’s first success. He’s now taken pride in his new subspecialty, lesbians with the same name—such as Anna and Anna. After graduation, Bateman hopes to expand his faux-business in the big city and expand the CLIT franchise. “I’m gonna host scissor suarees,” Bateman said. “Lesbian ski-getaways at Lodge Lesbo. My lesbian lodge in the Alps!”
Whether you’re at the cinema, writing a secret on Plans, going on a CLIT-arranged date, getting ready to spend your work- study money at the Phoenix or settle in with a bottle of wine and your friends, the S&B urges you to be your own Valentine if you don’t have a person to share it with. This third year couple put it the best—“All kinds of love can be celebrated on Valentine’s Day,” said Maia Larson ’11. Charlie Zimmerman ’11 corrected her—“Conglomerate love,” he said.
Gas station/munchie spot reopens
Kum & Go, located on 5th and West reopened with new features like a milkshake machine but less condiments. - Ami Freeberg On Oct. 10, 2009, the Kum & Go, located on the corner of 5th and West, was demolished. Students, perhaps faculty, and community members alike were left with limited options from which to procure their light night slurpees or packs of chocolate doughnuts for the dark winter months, including the entirety of Hell Week and finals week.
After returning from Winter Break, however, all can delight in the new, improved and finally open Kum & Go, which officially opened its doors to the Grinnell Community in mid- January. But WTF is the difference between the old and new Kum & Go? “In all honesty, it feels like you can’t go in there drunk,” said John Burrows ’10, Kum & Go aficionado. “It’s a lot brighter and has more cameras.”
“It looks too fancy. I feel out of place,” said Kum & Go frequenter Dylan Naylor ’13. “I feel unwelcome. I’m not classy enough.”
This description of “classy” stems from the freshly tiled linoleum floors that grace the entire inside, along with the significantly larger Kum & Go clothing selection, possible due to the increase in square feet of the actual space.
“They offer a wider Kum & Go apparel section, which is nice,” Burrows said. “I’m saving up to buy the PJs.”
In addition to clothing, the beverage selection has been vastly expanded, offering an array of coffee blends and flavors. The massive soda machine allows a customer not only to add flavored syrups, such as cherry and vanilla, to a carbonated beverage, but also added a mysterious dispenser marked “lean,” which one can only assume helps boost fat- burning while sipping your 64-oz mountain dew and chomping down on your low-fat frozen burritos.
If frozen treats are your jam, in addition to burritos and burgers piled high in the freezers, the new Kum & Go also comes complete with a milkshake machine. Initial reviews of this machine, however, are shaky at best.
“They don’t taste like milkshakes,” said Emily Evans ’13. “I strongly doubt there was any milk product.” Naylor agreed, “They really could be more milky and more shake-y. They were neither.”
However, the new Kum & Go, despite its advancements in milkshake technology, lacks the extensive selection of hot dog accoutrements that the Kum N Go of yore boasted. Seriously, I just want some jalapeños.
Great Pie just a stone’s throw from Grinnell
20 miles southwest of Grinnell and 30 minutes away by car, Sully is a town of a little under a thousand with a small downtown dwarfed by the massive grain elevators of the Sully Co-op Exchange that rise to the south. The Coffee Cup Café, however, has earned a reputation that outgrows this town’s small size and relative anonymity, in no small part because of its pie.
Ed Levine ’73, a Grinnell alum and founder of SeriousEats.com, lists the Coffee Cup as one of 10 great places in the United States to eat pie in a recent article in USA Today (he discovered the Coffee Cup while attending Grinnell). When RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) passed through here in 2006, Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong was at the Coffee Cup eating a piece of pie, as the many photographs and newspaper clippings on the bulletin board at the restaurant can attest.
The Coffee Cup’s local and national reputation is built on more than just pie though—as their menu says, they take “extreme pride” in all their “made-from-scratch cooking.” The café is ranked by the Des Moines Register as one of 100 places to eat before you die and named one of 500 best places to eat before its too late in the book Road Food.
Tucked into a short row of businesses on one of Sully’s main streets, the Coffee Cup is a small place, a few booths and tables squeezed into the main dining room, well-lit by a wide front window. In the sort of industrial furnishing that you might be familiar with from The A&M Café, indicative of the building’s relatively recent past (the Coffee Cup was founded in 1970), the ceiling and the front of the bar are made of sheets of gray corrugated metal.
There is further homage to history in the walls filled with framed black-and-white photos of turn-of-the century Sully. The café was full of the local, lunch-time crowd when we arrived. Vegetarians should take notice: this is a meat- centric restaurant. We discovered that even the seemingly meat-free Dutch Lettuce (one of 100 foods to eat before you die, according to the Des Moines Register) had bacon in its homemade dutch dressing.
Other highlights on the menu include a Garbage Salad, ground beef and carrots over lettuce, and the 3 lb Cowboy Burger served on Texas toast for $7. In fact everything on the menu was $7 or less, and all the appetizers were $4 or less.
After our main dishes, we got straight to the pie. We tried healthy slices of banana cream (purportedly their best kind), German chocolate and rhubarb, $2.25 each, hoping to get a good sampling of their pie variety. The banana cream was a slight disappointment for its lofty reputation, but the German chocolate, and especially the rhubarb, were fantastic. I think the Coffee Cup is worth visiting multiple times just to see what pie they’re offering. The cheap menu, great pie and comfortable, local feel make this an excellent place for an out-of-Grinnell excursion, for breakfast, lunch or dinner (make sure you check their hours and remember to bring cash). Plan on going there soon, if not before you graduate, than at least before its too late. Taco Crawl
Last Week Glen W. Bell, the founder of Taco Bell, passed away at the age of 86.Since the first Taco Bell in 1948, the American-Taco landscape has greatly changed. To honor Bell’s memory, Jai Garg ’11 set out to explore the taco depths of the Grinnell community.
La Cabana 4/5- Walking into this brand new institution, one can already feel a welcoming atmosphere. Not only is the layout of this place wonderful but also the food. The Taco’s are delectable and they do not put a pinch on your wallet, I would recommend the Super Burrito during lunch along with Jumbo Margarita—all for under 10 dollars! And unlike its closest competitor it is located just minutes from the Grinnell College campus.
Taco John’s 1/5- Its right down the street on the sixth avenue, and has wonderful hours, yet chances are you have never heard the statement “Guys, I think I am going to Taco John’s tonight instead of the D-Hall” Truth be told, the D- Hall put this place to shame. Anyone who has taste buds would certainly agree, as I ate what they call a “Tex-Mex” creation I was wondering if they were playing a practical joke on me. I recommend staying away or walking the extra block to Kum and Go and getting the frozen burrito, your stomach will thank you.
Taco Bell 3.5/5-The most popular taco place in the country is adored by many for its late hours and cheap eats. Certainly, you are not going to get the quality of food that Casa Margaritas or La Cabana offers but you will get the best bang for the buck. I recommend going on Tuesdays when hard shell Taco’s are only 65 cents!
Casa Margaritas 3.5/5- The house of margaritas is certainly that, if you are looking for a good night out, no place in town serves a better or bigger marg. The food is plentiful for its price and can warm you right up in these cold winter months. While the tacos are not as good as La cabana, they certainly give you much more for the price. Go during lunch for some superb deals, or on Friday or Saturday night as a great pre-game to the night.
Secular winter gift crawl
With finals week coming up and the end of the semester looming in the near future, many of you will undoubtedly be very busy during the next few days writing that paper or studying for that exam on top of preparing to go home. And since we Grinnellians like to be efficient in everything we do, here’s an idea for all of you multi-taskers and overachievers out there—find gifts for your friends and family back home as a study break!
There are many places around Grinnell where you can get gifts to give to your friends and family back home, whether it be for the upcoming holidays or simply because you miss them and want to show your affection. Whatever the reason may be, here are a few gift ideas for your gift-giving plans.
Shirts from Local Establishments Many of the local eateries and establishments around town offer their own unique tees that patrons can purchase typically for under $20. Lonnski’s Pub and Deli have shirts in a variety of colors for $15, while Paglai’s Restaurant and Kum & Go offer hoodies along with their tees. Pick them up for you friends—unique shirts, especially ones chock full of light sexual innuendo, are generally popular with the younger crowd—or for you parents, especially if they’ve taken you out to eat there before.
Maytag Cheese If you’ve got the time, head on over to the Maytag Dairy Farm in nearby Newton to pick up some tasty, locally made cheese. Pick up a 4 oz. wrapped wedge for $3.75, or for that special cheese lover in your life, there are 4 lb. wheels of cheese for $37.50. And if you don’t have time to make it all the way to Newtown, you can pick up Maytag Cheese at local supermarkets like McNally’s and Fareway.
Grinnell College Student Publications Share with your friends and family what’s on the minds of Grinnell students by picking them up one—or all—of the many student publications offered through the Student Publications and Radio Committee (SPARC). If your friend or family member likes interesting literary pieces, there’s the Grinnell Review or the newest publication, GoGo, or if you want to show them a taste of Grinnell humor, there’s the B&S. They’re free, so pick up as many as you want from the JRC Mail Room.
Digital Art from the CCL Remember in elementary school when you would make art and bring it home as a gift for your parents? Well guess what—you can still do that! Show family and friends back home your artistic abilities by giving them something you made. The Creative Computing Lab (CCL) is located in the forum, and offers Photoshop and other applications to help bring out that creative side in all of you.
Local Art from Saint’s Rest If you have a little extra pocket money, consider some of the local art offered at Saint’s Rest in town. They offer plenty of fine photographs, posters and prints taken by local photographers. Unframed photos are $35 and posters are $10.
Recordings and CDs of campus musical groups Con Brio, G-tones and Grinnell Singers offer studio-recorded, high quality recordings and CDs of their music—a great gift idea for the music lovers you know back home. Also make sure to check with Freesound if they have any recordings or compilations of campus bands that could be worth checking out. Or—for you cheapos—just go to the KDIC Website (kdic.grinnell.edu) and burn some off the Internet.
The Grill Not exactly your typical go-to stop for gifts, but if you have a few extra dining dollars you need to burn before they expire at the end of the semester, check out the Grill for some sweet stocking stuffers.
THE CAMPUS BOOKSTORE If all else fails, head down to the bookstore and pick up some good, ol’ Grinnell-logoed merchandise for your friends and family back home.
OR… If you’re looking for a special gift that doesn’t require you to walk anywhere and won’t cost you money, consider a jar of melted snow from Grinnell’s first blizzard in a number of years. It’s a gift that says “I love you enough that I want you to have a piece of my Grinnell College experience – just not enough to freeze my ass off walking into town for a real gift.”
Day in the Life
6:43 a.m. — Wake up and start phone tree to mobilize the masses. 7:06 a.m — Go to Rabbitt’s Tavern for Tequila Sunrises with [scribner] et al. 8:57 a.m. — Walk to A&M Café in the blizzard for baco- vegetarian breakfast. Debrief morning and discuss structural inequalities with AJust-trained facilitators. 9:55 a.m.—12:05 p.m. — Babysit nine-month-old Penelope, daughter of bourgeoisie intellectuals. We read baby books in Portugese, watch Vicente Fernandez videos on Youtube and take a nap to her favorite white-noise cd. 12:15 p.m. — Make oddly shaped crepes and drink organic wine with Magali at la maison française. Magali, téléphone-moi, (952) 220-3565 12:44 p.m. — Stop by the Burrow (1126 Broad Street) to scrounge for baked goods, root vegetables, leftover quinoa and gossip. 1:03—1:57 p.m. — Sit in Burling and read “Nourishing Traditions: the Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats,” laugh way too loudly at [secrets] about people being loud in the library. 2:17 p.m. — Kesho class is the best ever. After an awkwardly tense discussion of mother’s day, we listen to 20 pages of Jane Fonda’s memoir and ride the sister-ship against the waves of patriarchy. 3:30 p.m. —Decide to go sledding! 3:42 p.m. —Too windy. Decide not to go sledding. 4—6 p.m. — Sort of help Burrow ladies cook dinner slash research diva cups (slash harass [hederman] for checking out porn on my Family Video account and not returning it.) 7:00 p.m. — Social Justice-themed Forum! Per usual, I am in charge of explaining the first eight terms in the packet. 9:00 p.m. — Suggest horrible ice-breaker —“If you were a time zone…”—at No Limits meeting. Everyone participates to humor me, but no one is pleased. 10:00 p.m. — F.U.N. in the pub (Friends Unpacking Now, duh)!! 12:09 p.m. — Cried because no one would watch Hair with me. Relieved anguish by doing ritual, secret check of [ajust], [nolimits] and [voicebox] e-mail accounts. Because I can’t let go. 12:57 p.m. — Me and the rats in my wall call it a night. Countdown ‘til Grinnell departure: nine days… Things that might taste good with peppermint
Hot chocolate (duh), oatmeal, cheerios/cornflakes/other neutral breakfast cereal, ice cream, chicken, pasta, any other form of chocolate, milk, rice, cottage cheese, yogurt, watermelon, mashed potatoes, nuts, coffee, matzoh, eggnog, venison, reindeer meat, cinnamon, pancakes/waffles, whipped cream, marshmallows, birthday cake, schnapps, snow.
Note: All additions and/or modifications are welcome
Day in the life
7:30 a.m. — I wonder why I took my underwear off in the middle of the night. 7:45 a.m. — Randomly select clothes with graphing calculator. End up with classy look today—black turtleneck sweater and sports coat. 7:59 a.m. — Greet housemates, talk about Day in the Life. We debate whether I should actually describe a day or whether I should just make up a day. I decide on the former. It seems disingenuous and essentialist to portray my life as all butchering deer, tanning hides and burning prairies (although I have done those things). If you disagree, I apologize. The request to not wear a shirt in the accompanying photo was also weird. I don’t wear a shirt because it is hot sometimes. To be pigeonholed as a wild savage is kind of offensive. Nonetheless, I let them keep the picture for identification purposes. 8:05 a.m. —Corn mush with maple syrup (traditional Mesquakie breakfast). No apples or raisins to put in it . 9:38 a.m. — Pack bag for class, realize I left pea coat in Alabama! What am I going to wear to waltz!? Discuss debacle. 9:44 a.m. – 10:50: Earth Systems Science and Anthro classes. 11:54 a.m. — Go to lunch, discuss planned post-graduation bike trip through Alps at German table. Get an apple for corn tomorrow. 2:05 p.m. — Go home and discuss whether to make more potatoes for Eid al Adha, which someone in the house thought was the Festival of Slaughter but is in fact the Festival of Sacrifice. Nuance. Decide not to. 4:02 p.m. — Check weather, decide that this week will be good for burning the Ecohouse prairie. 4:20 p.m. — Go to the bank to cash a check and to Fareway to buy raisins (on a bike—yay exercise and the planet!) 4:40 p.m. — Find a pea coat for $15 at Annabelle’s Attic – what a deal! 5 p.m. — Go to Eid dinner and eat and talk about a park in China where you buy animals to throw to tigers. 7:14 p.m. —Go to the library. Guy whistling reminds me of a song in the Ocarina of Time. It’s not in Pandora so I pick a random station—Nelly radio. Haven’t listened to that in a while. Work on Econ problem set. 10:40 p.m. — Nelly radio has started to wander a bit to obscure alternative rap. Funny how Pandora does that. 10:53 p.m. — Go home. Ritual debate with girlfriend Aniko about showering before bed to keep the sheets clean vs. showering in the morning so hair doesn’t get messed up. I am in the latter camp. 11:32 p.m. — 50 push ups and 25 leg lifts. 11:36 p.m. —Into bed to read “The Economist.” 12 a.m. — Go to sleep. Party in Grinnell, IA
There’s no way you never got the memo—for the past few weeks it has been virtually impossible to walk down a loggia on a weekend without overhearing the voices Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus. Lyrics from “Bad Romance” are now featured on the wall of Burling’s 3rd floor bathroom, Drag Show ended with a “Party in the USA,” the last issue of the S&B included a comic giving thanks for the “campus-wide obsession” with Lady Gaga and Alexander Rich-Shea ’12 recently shaved “Gaga” into his buzz- cut.
This week, the S&B wonders why the f*** “Bad Romance” and “Party in the USA” are so popular?
“Bad Romance… it’s just crazy. It does something to you. Really. It won’t get out of my head. I haven’t slept in days. It’s ridiculous,” John Burrows ’10 said. Latona Giwa ’10 echoed Burrows’ obsession. “It is heinous but addicting,” she said.
Part of Lady Gaga’s popularity has to do with her often- surprising appearance, and the unbelievable, though incomprehensible, music videos she creates. “I especially like the [“Bad Romance”] video, it’s very subversive, it’s very exciting, lots of crazy dances. I’m still trying to deconstruct the actual message behind it,” Ragnar Thorisson ’11 said.
The video has gone viral across the country, and has especially infected the Grinnell student body. “I think college campuses are conducive to viral videos,” Alana Vogel ’12 said. “[They are] contained environments where such artistry is appreciated.” While both songs are rampant on campus, there are significant differences between the obsession with “Bad Romance” and “Party in the USA”. Many students see Lady Gaga as an authentic entertainer, because of her self-written songs and individual style.
“Students in my Chaucer Seminar are talking about Lady Gaga,” Tim Arner, English, said. “I thought that they were joking–that they like Lady Gaga ironically, but it turns out that they actually like her.” Students themselves are surprised at the vigor of their obsession–what began as an ironic appreciation has turned into a genuine love.
“I think I might actually like [“Bad Romance”]. Not just, ‘Ha, ha, it’s cool to like it. I think I might actually like it. It’s scary. What have I become?” Burrows asked.
Grinnellians seem to truly adore Lady Gaga, even as they joke about it. Accepting our love for “Party in the USA” is a little more difficult, because that means admitting teen queen Miley Cyrus might have something legitimate to offer.
“It’s not as open… People are a little more hesitant to admit they like Party in the USA as much as they like Lady Gaga,” Ryan Carlino ’10 said. The song is pretty catchy–“ noddin’ my head like yeah, movin’ my hips like yeah”–people can’t ignore it even if they try to.
“I really don’t like Miley Cyrus, but I find myself humming that song and I don’t even have it on my computer,” Susanna Moller ’12 said, bringing up a sentiment that many others on campus share. It’s almost as if Miley has hypnotized us with her patriotic message and short denim skirt. “She does have a lot of popularity, even internationally, and I don’t know why… But I’m listening to ‘Party in the USA’ right now,” Chloe Sikes ’10 said.
Even as we accept “Party in the USA” as a necessary part of our daily lives, we’re not ready to admit that to the world. “I’m going to pretend I don’t know the name of it and haven’t listened to it a hundred times on my iPod,” Vogel said. “Her target market is certainly not college students. The fact that I enjoy things that my eight-year-old sister scoffs at is kind of embarrassing.”
Perhaps Miley’s appeal to the teeny-boppers is exactly what makes her attractive to us, a generation brought up on Britney Spears, Mandy Moore and Backstreet Boys. Being able to return to this optimistic, if simplistic, universe makes “the butterflies fly away.” “It’s spreading hope to the community. Miley Cyrus is amazing,” Thorisson said. “Everyone loves to party in the USA.”
“Bad Romance” also speaks to a universal experience. “We are all caught in a bad romance,” Winsome Eustace ’12 said.
What remains to be seen is if the intense popularity “Party in the USA” and “Bad Romance” enjoy will be here to stay, or if our obsessions are momentary.
“The Miley Cyrus thing, I don’t know. I mean, the song’s catchy and cute enough, but in a year I don’t think there will be anyone listening to it anymore,” Arner said. “There will be a new sixteen-year-old with a new pop song.”
Even if entertainment machines like the Disney Channel keep making new pop stars, that doesn’t mean we can’t keep the old—the ever-enduring Britney Spears being the perfect example. Burrows admitted that these songs have potential. “It’s possible that ‘Bad Romance’ or ‘Party in the USA’ could be a new Harris classic, similar to ‘Single Ladies’ or ‘Poker Face’… ‘Call On Me,’ ‘Tunak Tunak Tun,’ ‘Like A Prayer’… We just have to wait and see.”
Like these classics, “Bad Romance” and “Party in the USA” have brought Grinnell together. “I like going around and hearing people be really happy when they sing it,” Carlino said, “It’s like unity.” After all, as Alex McConnell ’12 put it, these songs are “Miley entertaining.”
Dear diary, I think I’m in love…with my body!
Naked Bake Night, Eco House, Sunday, November 15
I like to tell people that I look better naked. There’s something about the curves and indents of my body that work better when seen in the flesh, compared to packaged and wrapped up in pretty clothes. But standing in front of the mirror, preparing to show the rest of the world my better- naked body, I wasn’t so sure.
The pimples on the back of my thighs, the ones you get right underneath your butt? They were a personal affront. The red lines from last night’s “fetish Harris” costume screamed, “I wear clothing that’s too tight on a body that can’t pull it off.”
I thought I looked better naked because usually, while naked, I’m too preoccupied with the activity at hand to actually examine my flesh for all of its oddities and leftover tan lines and stray hairs.
So no, I didn’t go to “Naked Baking” naked. I showed up fully clothed but I walked in to see two girls in no-pants, and one boy sporting an apron and nothing else. I knew them, but not in the kind of way that lends itself to comfortably removing my clothing.
I instantly regretted my choice of attire. I just couldn’t see myself taking off the sweatpants and shirt I’d slipped on over my undies, right in the middle of this kitchen. It felt highly inappropriate, if not downright dirty. So as a compromise, I took off my shirt, and began to bake cranberry chocolate chip cookies wearing a tank top and sweat pants.
Thus began the prolonged strip tease. I put back on my shirt, and took off my pants. And then I took off my shirt, so that I was wandering around in my most conservative black panties and a tank top. And then finally, ten minutes before leaving, I took off that binding last shirt, and bared my lace-covered nipples to the world.
The funny thing is, the cliché is true. Being–almost–naked was liberating. I laughed at the way my ass shook while I stirred the dough—I bent over to get the cookie sheet from beneath the oven and noticed the exact muscles that tense in my thighs in that position.
I wasn’t worried how these almost-strangers saw my body. And I wasn’t worried about how I saw it, either. It was there—part of the decoration. No better and no worse than anyone else’s. I think next time I’ll lose the bra, too.
Fat acceptance Discussion, Younker Lounge, Monday, November 16
I examined my body carefully yesterday when I was preparing to broadcast it to the world at Eco House, but I felt more self- conscious of it tonight, sitting fully clothed in Younker Lounge. I was distinctly aware of the two cookies, piece of cake, slice of pie and three chocolate kisses sitting in my stomach. I felt the waist of my jeans biting into my protruding belly.
I felt fat.
So it was a good thing I was sitting at a fat-acceptance discussion. Except that I don’t identify as fat. I recognize that, to the rest of the world, my body is fine. It is attractive even, for those who appreciate the exaggerated coke-bottle shape.
Yet sitting in Younker, I was fat. Partly because I’ve got the curves to claim it, and partly because of the specific mood I was in. It depends on what exactly is weighing on my stomach and how much I’ve worked out and what jeans I’m wearing—even who I’ve hooked up with lately and how it went.
We talked about this issue—one’s personal-identification versus society’s definition of them. We also talked about how society attaches other stereotypes to fat people, and I realized I subscribe to a lot of them.
In fact, I connect being fat with a lot of things about myself that I don’t like–my lack of self-control, the obnoxious, loud, insecure aspects of my personality and my inability to change my own body. Fat acceptance is about moving away from these ugly and untrue stereotypes. It’s not about accepting unhealthy and potentially dangerous lifestyles, it just shifts the emphasis from skinny to healthy, which is something achievable at a wide range of weights.
The discussion wrapped up on a note of—politically incorrect—laughter. “In my country if you’ve got curves and a big ass, you’re worth more cows,” called out Nadine Baranshamaje ’11.
Female-identified Masturbation Workshop, Main Lounge, Wednesday, November 18
Masturbation is a touchy subject for me. While male masturbation was a main topic of conversation all through high school, the idea of girls servicing themselves was beyond taboo.
My own hesitancy to discuss masturbation stemmed from the fear of being the only one to do it—the only one who had sexual urges and the only one who was able to express them without a partner.
Turns out, I’m not the only one. The masturbation workshop assuaged all of my high school fears of being deviant or out of the ordinary in any way. By the end of it, I was almost worried that I’m unoriginal in my methods, experience and the supposedly uncommon settings in which I’ve practiced them.
Unoriginality wasn’t really my main concern though, to be honest. Instead, I spent most of the hour and a half discussion wishing desperately that somebody had sat me down for this conversation four years ago. If somebody had actually discussed masturbation with me, I could have begun the exploration of my body with self- confidence and curiosity, instead of confusion and embarrassment.
We were still embarrassed tonight, but it wasn’t born from feeling dirty or inappropriate. Rather, it was the embarrassment that comes when discussing something that is deeply intimate.
The intimate details of my sex life were aired as we talked about the different things that we did to get off, and I brought up what I thought was a strange turn-on.
Despite the fact that I identify as a straight female, I fantasize about girl-on-girl, boy-on-boy, and occasionally girl-on-boy-on-boy interactions. Not many other girls in the circle related to this, but I did learn that there’s been a whole study on how women get turned on by all sexual activity, regardless of orientation.
I found myself laughing—is nothing I do weird or unheard of? Still, my sexual uniqueness matters less to me than just knowing what I like. After all, as the masturbation 101 handout told us, “It’s important to know what excites YOU.” So, you—go figure it out. And if you already know, practice it.
Dear diary, I think I’m in love…with my body!
I arrived at the male-identified masturbation workshop slightly tardy to a circle of males sharing their names and the oddest place they had pleasured themselves.
A pickaxe of an icebreaker, the awkward silence caused by the topic of self-pleasure quickly turned to frequent laughs as everyone realized masturbation is one of the most relatable experiences for males. I felt comfortable. I wanted to share my experiences, from how I accidently discovered the habit at a very young age to an awkward moment in my adolescence when my mother walked in on me in our living room at midday and began scolding me for my choice of venue, only to later praise me for exploring my body.
Then, the conversation swiftly switched from self-pleasuring to erotic inspiration to partner sex to gender issues. In the process I was left feeling entirely uncomfortable as rather naive comments were made regarding how sex should be, and how mainstream porn is a model of what sex should be. Some individuals even admitted to not knowing that males can achieve orgasm through stimulation of both the penis and the prostate.
After this subsided, a solid flow of information began and I realized the exact reasoning for the workshop—advanced sexual education, the stuff most peoples’ parents did not teach them, but they instead find out on their own eventually. It became evident that just because I know some of the things that please me sexually, I cannot assume to know about the sexual desires of another.
Initially, there was a clear mix of hesitation and curiosity when the concept of prostate stimulation was raised. The reluctance to experiment may stem from a preconceived notion that men are not meant to be penetrated. Yet, luckily there were plenty of people who shared their experience and knowledge—diagrams included. This helped dispel some of the homophobic anxieties present in the room. Most guys who have been informed of the prostate’s power have considered experimenting with it, and the positive feedback provided at this workshop surely only encouraged that exploration.
The mood lightened near the end of the workshop as attendees shared their most humorous masturbatory episode. The longer the forum ran, the more I appreciated that it was expanding my understanding of both gender and sexuality. So often, I think of sex far too simply, and that seemed to be a common mindset—you get aroused, you masturbate, you move about your day.
However, just because an efficient orgasm is so easy to discover for most men, we neglect to think of more elaborate possibilities. The masturbation workshop served as a perfect reminder that one’s sexual knowledge and exploration are never complete.
Dear diary, I think I’m in love…with my body!
When I asked for directions to Eco House last Sunday, I was told that it is the home with the “bushy patch” of prairie grass in front—an ironically appropriate description for a house hosting a nude baking event.
I was immediately greeted by skin and smiles when I entered the kitchen. The hosts gave me freedom to undress to whatever degree of nudity I felt comfortable with, so the pants came off. However, there were unfamiliar faces—and nipples—in the room, so I decided to leave my skimpies on for the time being. Two desserts were on the menu—carrot cake cupcakes and chocolate-Craisin cookies. The small kitchen, in my opinion, provided an exceptional facility for nude baking. The very purpose of nude events is to share your bodily-identity with others—wriggling between racks and brushing against cheeks while fetching the brown sugar definitely fosters such intimacy. Note—cooking aprons cover only the front of the body!
Any apprehension I initially harbored passed through my mind as we prepared the food, and was soon replaced by a liberating freedom. Several more participants arrived, totaling about 10 people—some nude, some not.
Several people noted that the house was too cold and a nude baking event justified the environmental expense of turning up the heat. Eco House residents, however, demonstrated their values by utilizing an alternative heat source—when the snacks were done baking the oven door was left open, which increased room temperature by several degrees.
Despite the foretelling directions I was given, no bush was exposed. In retrospect, I wish I would have gone fully nude—but I didn’t want to be the only one. I asked for an apron but there were no extras. At Eco House’s next nude baking event—which they do plan on hosting—I will be sure to bring my own and undress.