Changing the Double Standards

By: Elizabeth Pinckney

    We’ve come a long way from females being seen as baby-makers and homekeepers, needy damsels to be saved and annoying obstacles to get in the way of men. The world is slowly heading towards total equality, which is great for every gender. Fiction, at first glance, seems to mimic this, as all stories do. Heroines are becoming more and more common as females gain their voice, and gender roles on both sides are expanding. What was once seen as unacceptable is now turning into the norm, and what stereotypes once dominated storytelling are starting to disappear.

    When looking deeper, however, something starts to be revealed. Females are still getting unfair treatment compared to their male counterparts. The heroines that exist in many popular, modern works of fiction seem to fall into two categories. They are either weak, confused and spend much of their time being helpless to control their lives, or they go to the opposite extreme and turn into strong, less-than-feminine, “ideal” protagonists that prove their strengths mostly by acting mean and dominant over others...and this category still tends to need men around anyways, lest they don’t come off as females at all. What does it say about our world when the most positive portrayals for heroines are, in a way, masculine tomboys? The best implication that can come from this is that females should be tougher like males in order to be competent. The worst implication is that real protagonists shouldn’t be feminine at all if they want to come off as strong.

What is strength, though, in terms of characters, and why do male characters get to be so much more than “strong”? The most famous male characters get diversity and complexity to them, and many of them can be described as not being stereotypically strong at all. Characters like Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter, and Luke Skywalker are interesting and memorable because they seem like real people and are unique enough to stand out from the crowd, regardless of them not being pinnacles of masculinity.

Female characters, by comparison, come off as notoriously flat. When they aren’t overly tough, they are the eye candy. If they aren’t the eye candy, they are there to be whiny obstacles. If they aren’t whiny obstacles, they are jealous witches trying to seduce the main character, or they are there to be protected and saved even when they are meant to be competent and self-aware. There are certainly exceptions to this rule, just as there are certainly some stereotypical tough-guys who manage to be memorable. However, it’s about patterns and the implications of those patterns. Real-life females are much more diverse and complex than fiction makes them out to be, and any of them can be competent. Showing the one-dimensional, “strong” heroines as the ideal female protagonists can easily be just as harmful as portraying them as damsels or eye candy. It shouldn’t be too hard to hire female extras to play minions or army members, or to write the doctor that heals the hero to be a female. If gender isn’t an issue, more females should be added to the mix. What matters is quantity and diversity, not adding more stereotypes into the mix and claiming that we’re being progressive and feminist.

It goes for male characters as well. Despite the diverse personalities and skill sets, there is still an issue that must be taken care of. Even with the surprising lack of stereotypical tough male heroes, it still seems to be the standard males are supposed to achieve. Audiences want their heroes to be able to throw a punch and take command. As I said above, even female characters are being held to the same unwritten rule. Fictional males who can’t do these things are expected to grow out of it by the end of the story, never-mind that there are plenty of real life males who don’t follow this standard and can still be very competent, interesting and heroic.

I cannot stress enough how strength and aggression does not make a good character. What makes a character well-written, relatable and memorable is them having an actual personality and actual depth. The focus on masculine “strength” and feminine “weakness” can easily be insulting, and in cases where the characters don’t follow these molds, there seems to always be at least a few jokes made about the characters acting like the other gender, or being weak, or being too tough. As the new trend is to make females break their stereotypes by acting similar to stereotypical men (who still need men of their own to function, mind), this hits males harder. It’s still seen as strange for a male to be sensitive, vulnerable, passive or simply incompetent at fighting. If their sexualities aren’t being questioned, they are the subject of many jokes and often need to learn to “be a real man”. Even though there are a lot of times where male characters don’t fit the stereotypes, society has not yet moved away from this notion of masculinity being the way of “true” strength.

This is perhaps highlighted best with female-on-male abuse. Whenever there are implications of a male character being nervous to, subservient to, or outright abused by a female, it’s often meant to be a joke or just a way to show how pathetically weak a man is. Verbal abuse? Whatever, he’s just a wimp who can’t take some teasing. Physical abuse? He’s a man, he should be able to take it.  Manipulated by a female? It’s his fault for being seduced. Sexual abuse? Either the joke is that he should like it and there is something wrong with him for not wanting her advances, or it’s a joke because a female is the one dominating him. This implies that females either can’t actually hurt males, or that if a male is not tough he deserves mockery.

This is one thing that needs to be abolished. If it’s seen as horrific and serious if a male character abuses a female, portraying female-on-male abuse as a joke is harmful. It continues to perpetuate the idea that females are generally weak and can’t defend themselves, so hurting them is a sin- and since they are so weak, any male that gets overpowered by them is doubly weak and should be seen as a joke for their misfortune. Abuse is abuse, no matter who the victim is.

A person is a person, no matter their gender. Double standards and stereotypes simplify things to their most basic, most insulting, form. Rather than continuing to accept these in our stories and convince ourselves they are okay, we should focus more energy on getting these things to change. Characters, regardless of gender, should be written with more diversity and be treated like actual humans in all cases. Female characters need more diverse traits, male characters need to start showing vulnerability and passiveness as traits that can be acceptable for their gender in today’s culture. Things continue to change, so why can’t our stories do the same?

 Nationals: the End of a Season for Some, the end of an Era for Others

Stephanie Cook

 

    Pop Warner Nationals for football and cheerleading were hosted in Walt Disney World, Florida during the second week of December. Teams from across the country came to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex to end their season. Three teams from Colonie Pop Warner Cheerleading went down to compete. The Mitey-Mites, a team of six and seven year olds, the Midgets, a team of middle school and freshmen, and the Angels, a team of Special Needs kids.

      I am one of nine coaches of the Midget team. Working together since August, the girls have practiced a routine to perform at Nationals. When we arrived at the Wide World of Sports for practice, it was great. The workers treat all of the teams like professional athletes and force all coaches to oblige by strict rules. There was no use of video or photography during practice, and the officials spent the hour revising our paperwork to ensure that there was no false information. The girls were given twenty minutes on three different mats, where they would jump, tumble, or work on their routine.

        The next day, our team and parents were taken to the ESPN Complex by a Disney bus. The arena had numerous flashing lights and a tunnel created by the outline of Mickey Mouse. This tunnel is where the cheerleaders would run out onto the mat to perform in front of the judges. Each age level performed on a different day, so when we competed the stands were filled with teenagers. Watching our team compete brought out many emotions. The girls did a great job, earning the title of third in the nation. However, this was the last year of Pop Warner for half of them as well as their Junior Coaches. Colonie High School Seniors Missy Vadney, Katie Hutton, Alex Summa, and I have been the Junior Coaches of this team for three years. All of the time and effort we had put into coaching was recognized in this final performance. This realization brought about many tears and smiles.

   When the team arrived back in Albany, many parents waited at the gates of the airport with balloons and cheers. The girls faces lit up after seeing people from the community show appreciation for their accomplishments. The Midgets were shown on ESPN 3 members of Colonie hosted house parties to watch their final performance.

   

 Grand Plans for a Great Year

Michelle Luo

  

  “Do you like to bake? Do you like to eat sweets and treats? Tis the season for yummy homemade goodies… Support the Senior Class by joining us for a Holiday Bake-Off. It will be on Thursday, December 18 from 3-4pm, in the Main Cafeteria. Bakers can choose their favorite receipt to enter in the Bake-Off Contest. The entry fee will be five dollars and a form will need to be signed. All students and staff are welcome to attend. The entry fee will be two dollars. You could sample all the goodies and help vote for the best one!” And that ended the morning announcements. This announcement was from the Executive Club of 2015, which is a club which focuses on raising money for the Senior Class.

The Executive Club is working hard on planning events, like the Bake-Off, to fundraise for the Senior Class. Mrs. Botta, one of the supervisors of the club, explained that, “We want to have enough money for the Senior Prom, Senior Picnic, Senior Celebrity Breakfast, and the 100 day countdown for the Senior Class.” The club currently has $5,500 from previous fundraisers, and they aim to raise at around $2,000 to $3,000 more for the class of 2015. Mrs. Botta says that they want to raise more money because we want “to do the most we can at each event with the least cost to the students.” Her goal is to be able to get additional features at each event.

“Right now for Senior Celebrity Breakfast we are serving donuts, but we want more than donuts. We want to have other snacks and drinks for the seniors to enjoy. To do this, we need more money.” She wants to make the events memorable and fun. If more money is raised, then, the club could afford to get additional centerpieces, a photo booth, or a better meal for Senior Prom. Executive Club is planning to fundraise through Restaurant Nights. It is an event when a certain percentage of the restaurant’s profit that night is donated to the club. In the past years, the executive club worked with Moe’s Southwest Grill, 99 Restaurant, and Chipotle Mexican Grill. This year, they are looking to work with either Five Guys, Smash Burgers, Panera, or McDonald’s. In addition to this event, the executive club is planning a 100 day countdown event for seniors. It will be a day they host for seniors to celebrate, but it will also be a day for fundraising. They will be selling “Senoritis” t-shirts. “It will be fun and can make money.”

“This year will be very exciting for all of us!” The Executive Club also runs an on-going bottle-drive to promote recycling as well as to fundraise. The iCare team is advertising for the club as they collect bottle caps. The Executive Club helps back by advertising the bottle cap collection. This school year for the 2015 Executive Club is really important. All the work they put in from the last three years will pay-off this year.

By Matt Woodworth

Black Friday, or is it Now Black Thursday

Stephanie Cook

Black Friday is a holiday to many who consider themselves shopping addicts. The numerous sales and discounts lead to lines of people waiting to get the newest thing at the lowest price. However, the shopping day has become more of a shopping night. Recently, stores have begun opening as early as 6p.m. on Thursday night. This just happens to be Thanksgiving Day, a holiday spent with loved ones. This recent time change has led to sales ending sometimes at 6a.m; forcing shoppers to go out at night in order to receive the deals.

Store employees are forced to end their holiday early in order to prepare for Black Friday; or Thursday in this case. Aine Geraghty, an employee at FYE, worked two Black Fridays with the store. According to Geraghty, “Why do we have to extend it to a second day, nonetheless Thanksgiving?” Geraghty said when I asked how she felt about Black Friday. Her first year as a member of the FYE staff, she had to go into work for 10p.m. on Thanksgiving night. Geraghty described the experience as, “Rushing through dinner, and hurrying to change not into her pajamas; but into work clothes.” When she went into work at night, the store was packed with people. She could not even greet all of the shoppers as they came in.

This past Black Friday, Geraghty arrived at work at 6a.m. and described the store as “dead for a Black Friday.” She believes that because people are allowed in the stores earlier, they no longer come in on Friday but they rush to get sales on Thanksgiving instead. When I asked how Aine felt after having to work on a national holiday, she said she was upset and angry. “I’m not a huge Thanksgiving person, but I still appreciate that is a day meant to be spent with family.” Even though she did not work until Friday morning this past year, Geraghty’s holiday was cut short. She had to leave her family to go to bed earlier so that she would be well rested for her 11 hour shift. Aine, a seventeen year old high school student, worked 11 hours on Black Friday. Not only are sales enforced during this special day, but employer rules are broken as well.

Despite all of these issues with Black Friday, people still spend all night in the stores. Missy Vadney, a senior at Colonie High School, went out shopping with friends at midnight. She described the mall as dead because most shoppers would be waiting until Friday to shop. This boycott shows that people are not willing to sacrifice family time for bargains. Vadney stated “the sales weren’t even that good.” She felt that going out early wasn’t worth it despite beating the chaos. Although she felt that her holiday wasn’t cut short by shopping at midnight, Vadney agreed that it was not necessary in order to save money on items.

Allowing Black Friday to intermix with Thanksgiving has caused mixed feelings among both shoppers and employees. At the rate businesses are going, Thanksgiving could be known as Black Thursday sooner rather than later. Turkeys will be replaced with credit cards, and family will be replaced with material things.  

Dinosaurs are Coming Back

Aine Geraghty

 

               In the upcoming summer of 2015, the park is open again (because apparently no one learned their lesson the first three times around). That’s right folks, this June you can bring your friends and family, not to a real life dinosaur attraction, but to the movies to see the release of the new film Jurassic World. Being the fourth film in the Jurassic Park series, the new story takes place twenty two years after the initial dino disasters, when the theme park is finally opened as John Hammond, the creator of the dinosaur world, intended it. But of course, someone has to take the fun a little too far, and they create a new breed of dinosaur that, you guessed it, escapes from its exhibit. You’re all very shocked, I’m sure.

While the movie does contain its fair share of stars, such as the budding stud muffin Chris Pratt, other celebrities rumored to be in it, like Keira Knightley and Jeff Goldblum (who starred in the first two films as Ian Malcolm), have been dropped from the project, which could leave some fanatics disappointed. Although there will be a absence of some of the series favorites, hopefully Richard Attenborough will make a cameo for a “Welcome to Jurassic World” line.

Movie buff Kevin Ruane shared his thoughts. Having only seen the past Jurassic Park movies and the trailer for Jurassic World, Ruane provided me with the outlook any average moviegoer would have. He predicts that for nostalgic reasons, the movie will do relatively well in the box office this summer, and while he will not be hustling over to the theater to see it, he assumes that a good amount of the younger generation will, due to their curiosity with the franchise. He also shared that he wasn’t sorry to know Goldblum would not be included, because after two trips to a hazardous dinosaur park, “When does it become making bad choices?”

To some, it may seem that the Jurassic Park team is grasping at straws to keep their story relevant, but there is no denying that they have sparked interest with the upcoming release of the new film. The movie is set to hit theaters on June 12, 2015, and to those of you who intend on seeing it, try to act a little surprised when the dinosaurs get out, would ya? I’m sure it would mean a lot to the producers.

Colonie Aids Students with Disabilities

By Courtney Yule

I have noticed lately that students within Colonie Central High School generally do not come into contact with special needs students on a daily basis. As a result, I investigated how these children are receiving the assistance to achieve a happy, educated, and enjoyable high school experience. On December eleventh I sat down with Mrs. Nielsen, Art/ Special Education Internship teacher, to talk about Colonies Central High School’s special needs curriculum. The art room was full of laughter and students working on a still life. The warmly lighted room went well with the snowy weather outside. Mrs. Nielsen fixed her sweater, and smiled warmly as the interview began.

 In the past children with disabilities were hidden from the outside world. However current advancements have led to an educational system supporting disable children across the nation. In Colonie Central High School we include courses such as Education Support Services, Adaptive PE, Career Exploration Internship Program, and an Art/ Special Education Internship.  In addition, summer Special ED camp is provided to stop the relapse of knowledge and skill sets.

According to Mrs. Nielsen, “One of things people do not realize is that a lot of our special need kids are involved, it is part of their IEPs that they have maintenance programs in the summer so they do not regress, and we have a really phenomenal program that is six weeks long”. This type of curriculum covers necessary academics with a twist.

“One of things that we do that is extra special is every year we pretend we are going to a different country, and then all the things that we do revolve around it” she said.  For example, the art work, literature, and field trips revolve around one country. One year, these children got to eat at an authentic Chinese restaurant since they were studying about China. Although this camp covers summer education, throughout the school year special needs kids are offered plenty of classes to maintain skill sets, learn life skills, and find long lasting jobs through internships.

Life Skills functions as an important foundation class within Special ED curriculum. This group contains a specific group of special needs students.  It includes, how to deal with people, how to handle situations, how to handle yourself in public, and simple manners and educate. Although manners seem minimal to us, “it gets you a long way in the world” she said.

The job site program, starting around tenth grade, helps kids intern at local job sites.   The lower levels of Special ED get to pick from a vast amount of jobs, around a certain radius of the school. Every quarter they intern at a different location. The goal of the job site class is to provide lasting and fulfilling jobs. It successfully manages to place kids at local businesses, after graduation.

The Art/ Special Education Internship course creates a community atmosphere. The participants, who help these children, objective is to help the student their assigned to work independently, yet certain kids rely on their interns more since they are not capable of completing assignments by themselves.

            This level of interaction creates a lasting relationship between the interns and students. It is not atypical to enter first period and see a boy blowing one of the girl’s noses when she needs to a tissue. “They just clean her up and put her back” said Nielsen. Not only do participants interact with these students in this class alone. Interns take time out of their lunch or use a free periods to be with them.

Mrs. Nielsen explained to me why this curriculum benefits these children, and how it not only impacts the child. It results in permeant changes to the interns who work with them on a daily basis. “When they start helping our life skills kids, they suddenly start turning around. They do not get in trouble as much because they are doing something valuable” said, Nielsen. Racheal Shave, a senior, works with these kids in the Art/ Special Ed Internship said the experience has given her patience and a new perspective.  According to Racheal Shave, “I have learned to look at people and realize you do not know what is going on in someone’s life. Whether it is a person with a disability, or person who has a brother or sister with a disability, or a parent with a child with a disability” “And you never know what they go through on a daily basis because it is tough” she said.   This experience helped her learn how to help the kids she always had a soft spot for. She always felt these kids deserved better attention and love from people. Racheal explained to me how she is love with everything about them, and how they taught her to “love as much as she can” because their hearts never get smaller.

In addition, Mrs. Nielsen said these programs help each child function to the best of their abilities, and it gives “them as authentic high school experience as they are able to experience within whatever limitations that they might have” she said.  

Her goal as a teacher is to see her students be successful.  “I do not care what type of student I am teaching. I want to see them grow as both a person, or in knowledge, or the way they see the world”, said Nielsen. Her perspective carries over into her passion and involvement within these children’s lives.

            Colonie Central High School’s Special Ed curriculum impact students, teachers, and the community. The amount of care and love given to these students is remarkable, yet the assistance given to Special ED children is unappreciated to the remaining school body. Therefore, when asked what she would say to the kids at Colonie High school about kids with disabilities Mrs. Nielsen said “They are kids. They might act a little bit younger than you, but they are kids.”