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 American Apparel and the sexualization of a cotton tee.
By Emma Schain
Photos by Josh Stansfield (click images to enlarge)
Spring 2009
I have an addiction, and it involves taking my web browser to places that are unpassable as anything close to appropriate. The whole site itself should be dubbed NSFW (or Not Suitable for Work, for those who are unfamiliar with the acronym). During my last escapade, I was greeted by just a girl and her buttocks, accompanied by an over-the-shoulder glance of seduction tricked out with all sorts of sexual innuendo. This was no amateur porn site, it was even better: the home page of American Apparel. My addiction is satisfied only when my order for the newest styles and the softest t-shirts has been placed , but to get that hunter green hoody, who would have thought that I’d first have to navigate through multiple cyber slide shows of thighs, boobs, bare backs, and quite a lot of ass? |
What now was like then.By Caitlin Cowie
Spring 2009
The world is going to end in three years. That is, according to the ancient Mayans, whom you may or may not choose to believe. Do keep in mind, however, that the Mayans’ calculations of astronomic events were frighteningly accurate. If you do indeed choose to heed their warning that the apocalypse is going to arrive in 2012, you should start preparing now. (Though admittedly, how you prepare for an apocalypse, I cannot say. Canned soup just doesn’t seem to cut it. Maybe a nice rain jacket? Or a bomb shelter?) |
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The other side of the coin: notable currencies from various times and places.By Michelle Spektor
Spring 2009
Money! We all use it, love it, want it, and for some reason we (especially as college students) never seem to have enough of it. But when was the last time you thought about money? No, really thought about it? In a way it’s a bit hard to contemplate any unique qualities in bills and coins, since most of the time they’re pretty predictable – a dead president’s portrait, and perhaps a weird eyeball-in-pyramid symbol accompanied by more patriotic images. Even currencies in other modern-day countries tend to follow a similar pattern of paper and metal, and the monotony makes us stop paying attention. |
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CNN's iReport: A benign mix of news and nonsense or a threat to journalistic integrity?By Allison Musante
Spring 2009
What if you picked up the front page of a newspaper, and in addition to on-the-scene reporting of the violence in the Gaza Strip, you saw a
story about ugly Christmas sweaters, a cat’s eighth birthday party, and a ten-pound hamburger? iReport, a user-generated news Web site created by CNN, is a multimedia Frankenstein’s monster: a bit of hard-hitting reporting, a touch of YouTube, a dash of commentary, a pinch of the New Yorker’s wit, and a sprinkling of photos from someone’s vacation album. iReport’s comical blend of what its users call “news” is only part of its identity crisis. Its danger lurks in the fact that, as CNN boasts, it’s “Unedited. Unfiltered. News.” As college-trained, professional journalists start writhing in pain considering the many ways in which an unchecked news source can cause mass chaos, iReport has the potential to show news-consumers how raw news impacts us every day at the most local, personal level. Now the question is…will iReport be a gentle giant who will serve us, or will it be a menace that we’ll hunt down with pitchforks? |
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Polygamy? No, just shoddy sitcom continuity.By David Berezin
Spring 2009
You wake up. There’s a strange man in your room. You jump out of bed, screaming, “Who the hell are you?” The man grins. “Silly, I’m your dad!” You know who your dad is, and this man doesn’t look anything like him. He doesn’t even sound like him. And yet, he expects you to believe that he’s your father, who you’ve known for literally your whole life, just because he says so? “What kind of moron is this guy?” you ask yourself. “Who could possibly get away with a trick that’s so unbelievably stupid, that goes against the very fabric of logic and common sense?” But, crazy as it sounds, innocent victims fall for this scheme all the time…in sitcoms. |
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Haven't you heard? Fake bicuriosity is the new plaid.By Kathleen Jercich
Spring 2009
The scene was much like that of any other Top 40 performance: arena full of screaming girls, check; spastic waving of digital cameras and cell phones, check; enough eyeliner to make Ronald McDonald get a little tingle of jealousy, check. Up onstage, however, the strutting rock god of their slavering affections was putting on a far different performance than the typical look-bored-with-four-chords routine. Shaking his hips and grinning, he would purr into the mic, “Last night — I had a dream.” |
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Insight into the present recession through an essay from the past.By Pete Devlin
Spring 2009
I have heard people respond to this mire we call a recession with a loud and resounding “It’s bullshit!” The credit crisis, the collapse of the housing market, corporate carelessness; all this is bullshit. But, you only seem to say this because of an innate unexplainable capacity to identify bullshit. Whether it’s from a subtle tingling in one’s feet or some other extrasensory perception, it’s become clear to quite a few that this recession was caused by the triumph of bullshit. Banks made careless loans, Wall Street made careless investments, and when everything began defaulting they and the consumers had a crisis of confidence. |
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Who really birthed the ice cream sundae?By Helen Havlak
Spring 2009
Few can dispute the delicious glory of the ice cream sundae. Despite their quiet, unassuming brilliance, however, sundaes have sparked quite the controversy. For years, a heated battle has raged between the towns of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and our very own Ithaca, New York, about who can truly claim the tasty treat’s origin. In matters of such incontestable gravity, it seems, no measures must be spared to determine the true fount of sundae.
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By Devon Walker
Spring 2009
My dad once asked me if I wanted him to strike me with his belt. |
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