Tangents and Tirades

by The Cowl Editor on February 8, 2018


Opinion


Keep the Ball “Black and White”

The Black and White Ball is making a much anticipated appearance later this month, thanks to the Board of Programmers (BOP). That being said, is it really going to be a Black and White Ball?

Right after the dance was announced, BOP cleared up some wardrobe confusion by expressing that students can wear any color they want. They are not highly encouraged to just wear black or white like last year.

Because of this change, the Black and White Ball is not a black and white ball anymore.

Although it is nice that BOP decided to take the theme in a completely different direction, they should have renamed the dance to something more inclusive.

Names like sophomore Friar Ball or the freshman Spring Fling would be perfect for this type of school-wide dance. They are simple, flexible, and do not imply a specific theme or color scheme, unlike the Black and White Ball.

While this is definitely not the most pressing issue on campus at the moment, it is a little confusing. If BOP wants to keep the name of the dance the Black and White Ball, students should then be highly encouraged to wear black and white. However, if BOP does not want to restrict students to certain colored attire, they should consider renaming the event.

However, regardless of what color students wear, the Black and White Ball is still going to be a night to remember.

So, what color will you be wearing?

-Katherine Torok ’20

 

At Least We Still Have the Memes

As Patriots fans are mourning their way through this tragic week for New England, we can perhaps still take away at least one positive from Super Bowl LII: all of the memes that have come and will come from Justin Timberlake’s Super Bowl selfie with a young fan.

If you happened to miss his halftime show, in the midst of a compilation performance of throwbacks and new songs (and even a commemorative Prince performance), JT walked up into the stadium seating to sing and dance with fans.

During this celebration, Timberlake posed for what appeared to be a simple selfie with a young boy. Yet after the photo was taken, the boy’s reaction was anything but that of a happy fan.

Totally frozen, the boy continued to stare at his phone despite JT standing right next to him. Whether he was in awe, complete shock, or in denial of the selfie that had just been taken, this young boy could barely lift his eyes from his phone screen. An expression of sheer confusion seemed to take over his face.

After this was captured on film, social media has done what it does best, creating countless memes narrating this boy’s experience while he stared into his phone in the midst of Justin Timberlake’s performance. So while we may cry over the Super Bowl, we should not forget to smile at the memes we now have from the halftime show.

-Sarah Kelley ’18

 

#TimesUp Grammys

The Grammy Awards, while an entertaining tradition, have unfortunately become another brick wall women have to face on the long-standing and challenging road to gender equality. Only one woman was broadcasted receiving a solo Grammy award during the 60th Grammy awards show this past weekend.

When confronted about the lack of inclusion in the awards show, Neil Portnow, the Recording Academy president, responded with a rather insensitive and ignorant response: “[They need] to step up because I think they would be welcome.” In light of the recent #MeToo and #TimesUp movement, it is not only morally incorrect, but obviously false to say that women have done nothing besides “step up” this past year.

To make matters worse, the Academy’s hypocrisy in terms of the gender equality movement was evident as they hosted Kesha’s performance of “Praying,” a powerful audio and visual display of the #MeToo movement while simultaneously snubbing Kesha for an award. Kesha gave an emotional performance that referenced the abuse she had to endure at the hands of Dr. Luke, an American music producer whose colleagues were also in attendance at the awards show.

It seems that the Academy supports the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement on paper because it is the path of least resistance that will grant them the least amount of problems. However, when it comes to actually taking meaningful strides towards equality—they fall short.

-Laura Arango ’20