Author Archives: Tasha

Addressing a Difficult Topic

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Tonight at the Rose Cafe, Dr. Nick Cheesman and an activist from Thailand led us in a very interesting conversation on torture in Southeast Asia. I felt having the perspectives of both an activist and an academic was a great structure for the talk as it allowed us to discuss both specific examples and the theoretical components of this difficult topic. In terms of specifics, the activist from Thailand was able to give us her personal insights into the status of torture in this country. When someone asked why police in Thailand resort to torture, she explained that the use of torture enables the police to rapidly obtain a confession which then allows them to publicise in the press that they have captured the supposed perpetrator of the crime. Since I’m currently taking a law class in which we have been discussing limitations on police-obtained confessions in the U.S., this observation led me to wonder whether stricter rules on the types of confessions that are permitted in court could diminish the prevalence of police torture in Thailand.

I also found Dr. Cheesman’s discussion of the theoretical aspects of torture very informative and especially relevant to our current political situation in the U.S. At the beginning of his talk, he mentioned that President Trump has suggested that torture “works” in terms of its ability to coerce information. When someone asked for Dr. Cheesman’s opinion on whether torture works, he answered that the answer to this question is a rhetorical yes, however the problem is with this question itself. He explained that in his work he has proposed the idea that we should stop analysing torture in terms of its effectiveness as this doesn’t address the broader ethical questions relating to torture. My hope for the future is that our political leaders in the U.S. will also move away from looking at the instrumentality of torture and instead consider its serious ethical implications.

Creating Community

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As I reach the close of my second year in the Rose Scholars program, I found tonight’s Rose café a great opportunity to reflect on the changes I have seen in the program and the ways it could develop in the future. I liked the fact that Dr. Hill opened our discussion with a brief history of the program so that we could see how recent changes fit into the program’s overall history. For instance, I was surprised to learn that the Rose café had only begun to be held in the library room last year and that moving it into the House Professor’s apartment was a return to its original setup. Personally, I have really appreciated this change in location because I like the more intimate atmosphere and because I feel that the restrictions on the café’s size have led to a noticeable increase in attendance at non-café events in the past semester.

After we discussed specifics of the Rose Scholar program, the conversation expanded to cover the overall problems with establishing permanent house cultures on West given the huge student turnover each year. This issue resonated with me since, although I am a rising senior who will be living at Rose for my third year, I would struggle to define what makes life at Rose different from any of the other houses on West. I thought many people tonight made insightful suggestions on ways in which these distinct cultures could be established, such as having inter-house competitions or having each house “adopt” a freshman dorm on North to provide a continuity between freshman and sophomore years. Dr. Hill explained, however, that the current general lottery system and the housing shortage make it impossible for freshmen to self-select houses, so any real solution to this issue will have to involve major changes to the existing system.

A Film Worth Watching Twice

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I saw Hidden Figures for the first time over winter break and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to see it for the second time at Cornell Cinema tonight. Even though I remembered the plot clearly from my first watching, I came away from tonight’s showing with a lot of new insights into the film. For one thing, it was a very different experience to see the film in a packed theater with people laughing, clapping, and commenting throughout. While I have been to many films where the audience clapped at the end, I thought it was great tonight that people clapped throughout the film after the scenes in which the protagonists stood up to the racist and sexist hierarchy they encountered at NASA.

I also found the talk and discussion after the film added a lot to my understanding of the themes the film portrays. While Hidden Figures is a very upbeat film with a typical “Hollywood ending” in which the female protagonists succeed in their career goals despite the obstacles of racism and sexism, Professor Weeden provided an important reality check on the continued lack of female and minority representation in the computer science field. I was very surprised to learn that even at Cornell, which is above the national average, only 20-some percent of computer science undergrads are women.

Additionally, I really enjoyed hearing other people’s opinions on the film as a whole in the discussion time. One person expressed the idea that parts of the film promote a white savior mentality by portraying many of the gains the women achieved as stemming from concessions from the white male establishment. While I agree that some of the scenes could be read this way, I also thought that many scenes in the film, like when one of the protagonists smuggles a book out of the segregated library so that she can teach herself computer programming, emphasized the women’s agency and initiative in securing changes in their lives. Listening to her viewpoint on the film, however, definitely encouraged me to analyze the film’s message more critically and be aware of potential issues with the portrayal of these “hidden figures.”

Expanding My Cultural Literacy

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This evening I went to a showing at Cornell Cinema of the Marx brothers’ film “Duck Soup” from 1933. While I had heard about the Marx brothers in multiple history and film classes I’ve taken at Cornell, I had actually never seen even a clip from one of their movies, so I saw this event as a good opportunity to expand my cultural literacy.

At first I was somewhat surprised by the structure of the film and its style of humor. I’d read online that the plot involved Groucho becoming the dictator of a fictitious country, so I was expecting a type of political satire along the lines of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator.” Instead the film’s actual plot was very limited and most of the humor revolved around puns and one line jokes with an occasional silent slapstick routine. Initially I wasn’t sure I was going to find it that entertaining, but by the middle of the film I had definitely changed my mind. One of my favorite scenes involved Harpo accidently turning on a radio while attempting to break into a safe. The scene went on for several minutes without any dialogue, but it was actually one of funniest skits I’ve seen in a while.

All in all, I really enjoyed the film once I got used to the style of humor. It was nice way to unwind after a long day of studying and if Cornell Cinema ever shows another one of the Marx brothers’ films I will definitely plan on going.

A Modern Take on a Classic Story

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This past Saturday I was very excited to attend a live streaming at the mall of the Metropolitan Opera’s La Traviata. While I am by no means an expert on opera, I did take a class on the history of opera in my freshman year which introduced me to a variety of modern and classic operas. One of the first operas we saw in this class was an extravagant movie version of La Traviata, with ornate sets and period costumes. With this experience in mind, I was intrigued to see how the Met would stage the opera differently and whether this different staging would affect my experience and understanding of the opera.

The Met’s staging of the opera turned out to be an extreme minimalist style, with the stage surrounded by a blank circular wall and the only furniture being a few modern-looking couches and a giant clock. The characters costumes were similarly simplified and modern and the entire opera contained only a handful of props. While I’m sure the movie version I saw was closer to the original vision of the composer, I actually felt that this minimalist version allowed me to focus less on the external scenery and more on the internal conflicts of the characters which form the core of the narrative. Additionally, the strategic incorporation of objects heightened their dramatic significance, especially in the case of the giant clock which symbolizes the approaching death of the protagonist Viola. While her behavior in the opera at times comes across as light-hearted and flippant if you focus on her words alone, the presence of this ticking clock was a constant reminder that her actions might be motivated more by despair and desperation than frivolity.

Styled without Symmetry

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Last Wednesday, I attended my third art show and reception at Flora Rose House in the main dining room. I’ve always enjoyed attending this event each semester and getting a “behind the scenes” look at the artwork I’ll be eating next to in the weeks ahead.

The first thing that struck me about this year’s art collection was the variety of media incorporated in one space. In addition to paintings, the display includes photographs of hairstyles, t-shirts, and prints hung in strands along the wall. The artist, Nicholas Carbonaro, was at the event answering questions and he gave a short talk on the ideas behind the exhibit. The variety of mediums, he explained, is designed to showcase his creative collaborations with various groups over the course of his artistic career. For example, the photos of hairstyles are taken from his work for Madame Tussauds and Broadway productions and the t-shirts were created by a friend of his from his artwork.

One feature that ties most of the paintings and prints together is the recurring motif of dissimilar eyes on the faces of the people and animals depicted. I was glad someone at the event asked him to discuss the significance of this stylistic choice, as it was the aspect that I noticed the most on first viewing the artwork. Mr. Carbonaro explained that this feature is supposed to represent the fact that no human face, or any object in nature, is completely symmetrical. In this way, he sees his artwork as a more realistic depiction of life than the artfully arranged selfies on social media which are designed to give the impression of symmetry and perfection.

 

 

Raising Awareness

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This past Friday I attended a showing of the documentary “They Call Me Muslim” filmed in 2006. While the film is from over a decade ago, I found the topic very relevant considering the quantity of misinformed rhetoric that is currently circulating in our culture in regards to Islam.

The film focused on two parallel narratives of women involved in a controversy over the wearing of the hijab. Samah was a college student living in France where the law forbid her from wearing the hijab inside public educational institutions. On the other hand, “K” was living in Iran where the hijab is required for women who are in a public setting. In each case, the women wanted to do the opposite of what the law mandated them to do. During our group discussion after the film, I realized we had not all taken away the same message from the film, with some seeing it as portraying the French laws as potentially beneficial for society. For me, however, the overarching message of the film was that any regulation by a government on the wearing or not wearing of the hijab is a restriction of women’s right to express themselves and their beliefs.

Regardless of the film’s stance on the French restrictions, I felt that it spread a positive message by showing two Muslim women with differing beliefs and circumstances. When I attended the campus teach-in on Islam recently, one of the speakers emphasized that an important part of increasing understanding of Islam is highlighting the diversity of Muslims. For me this film was an important step towards achieving that goal.

Sewing Sustainably

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This past Saturday I had the opportunity to go to the non-profit Sew Green in downtown Ithaca for the first time. When we arrived, the director of the non-profit, Wendy Skinner, greeted us and gave us a tour of the building while telling us some of the history of the organization. She explained that the idea for the non-profit came to her after reading a book on sustainability that suggested that anyone can practice their career in a sustainable manner. She then decided to take her passion for sewing and open an organization where people could donate their left-over sewing materials to be resold at a fraction of their original price. While walking through the store, I was struck by the wide variety of sewing and knitting materials for sale in such a small place and the really artistic ways in which they were displayed. In addition to this store, Sew Green now also offers classes teaching beginners how to make their own articles of clothing with a sewing machine.

Later we sat down with Wendy in the sewing classroom and she shared some more thoughts with us on the importance of sustainability. I was shocked when she told us that up to 85% of cloth in the United States is currently thrown out rather than reused. She further explained that the concept of “fast fashion” promoted by malls and cheap chain clothing stores is a huge component of this wasted material. The trip to Sew Green definitely inspired me to be more conscious of what clothing I’m buying and to look into maybe taking a sewing class myself sometime in the future.

A New Part of Cornell History

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While I have been at Cornell for almost three years now, and Flora Rose House for two years, this week’s Rose café made me realize how little I actually know about Cornell history and the legacy of Flora Rose in particular. Eileen Keating from the Cornell archives gave a very interesting summary of the development of the College of Human Ecology which started back in the early 1900s as a department of home economics overseen by Martha Van Rensselaer and Flora Rose, who were Cornell’s first female faculty. I especially liked how Ms. Keating tied this Cornell history into a broader national context by discussing, for instance, how the women’s friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt was instrumental in their obtaining of funds and recognition for the school.

For me the most interesting aspect of the talk was the collection of artifacts and documents that Ms. Keating had brought with her to display, from photos of the early faculty to an actual desk commissioned by Eleanor Roosevelt for Martha Van Rensselaer. She also passed around a reproduction of a pamphlet published in 1901 by Van Rensselaer giving home economics tips for farmers’ wives. These tips ranged from replacing cakes and pies in the family diet with fruit, to how to construct an efficient icebox, to taking time at the end of the day to watch the sunset. These artifacts really added to my understanding of the talk and made me want to go over to the archives soon to see what other interesting pieces of history they have.