For this month’s edition of Hot & Healthy, Marker has spiced things up with a full, 2-course meal with entrée and dessert! Delicious, right? And since it’s summer, below these not one, but two video recipes, you can check out some great sex moves that involve things like pools, beaches and hot tubs!
Summer sex moves from those classy people over at Cosmopolitan:
Yeah, they’re probably all painfully uncomfortable, but hey, you only live once, right?
Summer vacation is almost here, and it’s creeping up behind MSU students pretty fast. After exams are over it will be staring us in the face. What will you do? Work at a job or internship, party for four months straight? Thanks to Michigan’s economy, many students will have to look elsewhere for summer employment, which means traveling for interviews and maybe even moving to a new and exciting city.
Sometimes traveling along is more dangerous than laying on a beach (photo credit: sxc.hu).
Last year, for the first time, over half of MSU students relocated outside of Michigan for a job said Karin Hanson, a Communication Arts and Sciences field career consultant. “Usually 50 percent of our students relocate, but last year we reached 51 percent,” she said.
If offered an interview or position at their dream job some students wonder if it will be worth making the move alone to a new place. It can be scary, confusing and sometime lonely, but overwhelmingly the response is yes.
“Jump in head first, even if you’re unsure, because you never know what is going to happen,” said acting and advertising senior Matt Kaufmann. “You’re going to work out if you have a good work ethic.”
Hanna Kleiner, child life senior, agrees.
“If you are questioning it, at least go and try it. If worse comes to worst you can leave and go home,” she said.
Antonio Gentile, civil engineering junior, compared his experience to a study abroad trip, which thousands of Spartans go on every summer.
“An internship in a new place is a chance to enjoy life,” he said. “It’s like a study abroad thing; take as much from it as you can.”
In most cases, the opportunities and benefits outweigh the worries that students have.
“The best parts of moving are the new people and change of pace,” said Gentile who moved to Texas for an internship. “It’s like a new life because you can start over fresh. And I liked the weather, too.”
In Kleiner’s opinion the best part was meeting new people and having new experiences.
“Also, it’s fun when you actually get to see what the city has to offer,” she said. “Nashville has so much. The worst part is that you want someone you know to share those experiences with. Sometimes you get lonely, but that doesn’t last for long.”
Kaufmann, who lived in New York City last summer, experienced the same feeling.
“If you are going to a big city just be prepared,” he said. “No one gives a shit about you, and that can be very intimidating. Just know that you have to put on your thickest skin, and it takes a while to get comfortable.”
But once you start to get comfortable a strange city can feel like home.
“It wasn’t until the end of the summer, but I had a routine and friends that I would always call,” he said. “Just give it time.”
It helps to have friends or family around when you are getting acquainted to a new place, but it’s not necessary.
“I had one roommate, and that was the only negative part of my trip,” Gentile said. “I didn’t know the guys that I would be living with, and I did not get along with one of them. He was a religious nut. And when I would call home my friends would be busy. I could understand, but that’s when it would get lonely down there.”
Hanson said that career services does a great job of matching students with alumni organizations in new cities. “Knowing alumni can make the transition easier because MSU has connections and resources around the country and even the world,” she said.
Alumni can help build you network wherever you decide to move. They can also give advice and help students select neighborhoods and housing. This year, the Chicago Alumni Association is throwing a huge event to welcome students who are relocating and get connected in the area.
It is also beneficial to make connections with coworkers like Gentile did to combat the bad roommate he had been assigned.
“The guys at my job really liked me because I could always make them laugh,” he said. “I adjusted really well to life down there because I like meeting new people, and every place you go is different, so it’s interesting to see the kind of people you meet.”
When moving to an unfamiliar city and traveling alone for the move or interview, it is very important to be safe. Just because you have stayed safe in East Lansing doesn’t mean other cities are similar. Traveling for an interview can be some student’s first experience traveling alone, and it is a good idea to take some precautions.
“I am pretty comfortable traveling alone because I do it about six times a year,” said Britt Hegarty, accounting senior who traveled to Chicago to interview with Price Waterhouse Coopers. “I definitely take a lot of precaution, though. I am more aware of my surroundings because you never know who is at an airport. You also want to make sure all of your personal information is taken care if, just in case it gets stolen, you want to be able to get to your location.”
Kleiner also made sure she was aware of her surroundings and also kept her boarding pass, luggage and purse close to her at all times.
“I made sure that I was checking the departure and arrival times on the TVs because I was alone and didn’t want to miss my flight,” she said.
Boarding the plane is only half the battle. Once landed, students must find a way to their hotel or interview destination. This may be riskier for women travelers who can become an easy target for criminals when traveling alone.
“If you’re in a taxi, you want to have an idea of where you are, especially if you are a girl,” Hegarty said. “If you feel like someone is taking you to a weird location, you want to be on higher alert and be able to describe where you are. That is the most important thing: to be alert enough to describe where you are.”
Kaufmann agrees that girls have a lot to worry about when traveling or living alone.
“There’s a heightened statistic that women get taken advantage of, but in New York City it’s such a diverse place. It would be easy for me to get put in the same situation, masculine and feminine men are different. Also, girls are more likely to get help than men if they are being attacked.”
Either way, it is important to get in the habit of traveling safely because many MSU students will soon become business professionals that are asked to travel for their jobs.
Forbes.com reported that many business travelers think they are traveling safe but are not. They have offered some tips that may come as a surprise to some people.
First, secure your home. Many people don’t think they will need to take this step, but something as simple as a few lights left on or an alarm system sticker on the front window can deter burglars from entering your home.
Don’t get absorbed in phone calls or texting while traveling because when you’re immersed in something you exclude everyone around you and are setting yourself up as a prey.
“Criminals strike most when people aren’t paying attention,” Forbes.com warns.
For women travelers, Forbes.com suggests buying an inexpensive portable lock for hotel room doors. The device can attach to the strike plate and slide over the door knob, which keeps it in place. This may be a good precaution.
“Female business travelers need to be extra cautious since they are perceived as more vulnerable than men,” according to Forbes.com.
Finally, don’t connect to an unsecure network at an airport. Hackers can set up these networks just to steal passwords and information from travelers. Surprisingly, many travelers don’t see this as a threat.
If you are still not convinced to try something new this summer, take Gentile’s advice.
“Be open-minded and stay positive. If something gets to you, just remember that it is temporary. If you like change and meeting new people, go for it.”
Hanson agreed and said she hasn’t met a student who wouldn’t travel to a new city again. She also urges students to remember that being flexible can only help your career, and you will always learn something from the experience.
“There is a risk associated with doing it, but it is an experience to build upon,” she said.
Kleiner sums it up best when she said, “there are so many new experiences that you can have, if you don’t go you’ll never know they are out there.”
So go forth Spartans, and enjoy your new summer experiences. Just remember to travel safe while getting there.
Chris Rock’s 2009 documentary, “Good Hair”, brought attention to hair and ideas of beauty in the African American community.
According to a review by Ann Hornaday for The Washington Post, Rock was inspired to make the film after one of his young daughters asked why she didn’t have good hair.
Chris Rock's documentary focused on the pressure for black people to have "good hair" (photo credit: sxc.hu).
“The concept of ‘good hair’ — which, simply put, has come to mean ‘the straighter the better’ in the African American community,” Hornaday wrote.
So, what really is good hair?
“Healthy hair is good hair,” said Rhonda Stokes, owner of Rhonda’s Reflectiosn Styling Salon in Lansing. ” Hair comes in all different textures; no texture is better than the other. And it depends on the individual. But for most African American women, good hair is healthy hair.”
Stokes said that African American hair requires more effort and attention to keep it healthy. She has clients that come in to get their hair done as often as once a week, because they are unable to style it themselves or would prefer that a professional style it.
Hair is an important beauty priority because women want to look their best, Stokes said.
According to Stokes, as long as it is nice and neat, it is beautiful.
“I would say the most beautiful styles would be styles that are nice and neat,” she said. ”Whether it’s short, long, or even natural. Something that’s beautiful and every hair is in place…something that looks like you take care of your hair.”
At Michigan State University, young African American women wear their hair based on their own personal preference.
LaTrice Davis, an advertising senior, prefers to wear her hair straight using a pressing comb and a flat iron. She said that she has her hair styled about every two weeks, which costs about $45 per visit. She then wraps her hair at night in a silk scarf to preserve the style from getting frizzy.
Davis said having her hair styled bi-weekly is not always possible on a college budget, so sometimes she waits longer in between hair appointments or finds a friend to style her hair for her.
Long hair is a desired style, whether it is straightened or curled with a curling iron, is seen as attractive to men, Davis said.
“In the African American community, beauty…correlates to having longer hair, which is why a lot of black girls get hair extensions,” she said. ”Because having long hair makes them look a lot better to….most guys. They prefer girls with really long hair.”
However, more natural styles like locks are another way of having beautiful hair, Davis said.
“Most of my friends…that have locks…which are dreadlocks or forms of dreadlocks, they are more like earthy…they are content with themselves and they don’t believe in straightening their hair,” she said. “And they feel that having natural hair is more beautiful.”
Susah McPherson, a senior studying interdisciplinary studies in social science, wears her hair in locks, which she has re-twisted once a month and ties her hair up at night.
McPherson said that while she prefers to wear her hair in a natural, low-maintenance style, having beautiful hair is dependent on personal preference.
“I think it’s to each his or her own,” she said. ”It depends on what the person prefers. I am an advocate for natural hair, but if you want to add artificial hair to your hair, and that makes you happy and that adds to your beauty, then go right ahead.”
According to McPherson, hair can be representative of personal style in the African American community.
“It represents a person’s style, who they are, their identity,” she said. ”It shows how you… value your looks and yourself, if you put a lot of time into your hair and maintenance. To someone else it may seem like it is not maintained or styled to their liking. But to that person it could be styled how they like it and it fits them well.”
According to Davis, beauty associated with hair is also a personal viewpoint.
“I have a cousin who has locks and she puts lock’s in her daughter’s hair, because she believes that’s what beauty is, because it makes you natural,” Davis said. ”It’s not chemically processing your hair. It’s not straightening your hair.”
Although society may have standards that explain what good hair is, it’s the wearer’s opinion that’s important, whether the person wears their hair straight, in locks, or another style.
“They are just two different…styles that come with two different mindsets,” Davis said.
While MSU educates nearly 45,000 students per year, the university’s cafeterias feed approximately 150 times as many mouths.
MSU feeds approximately six million people each year, nearly 25,000 people per day, said Associate Director of Residential Dining Bruce Haskell.
A student goes through the salad bar in Yakeley's cafeteria (photo credit: Emily Lawler).
Many students first view the massive cafeterias as an endless array of options, putting the home cooked dinner table to shame. Others notice the dangers of overeating or contamination often associated with feeding such large numbers of people.
“There were more choices than I expected there would be, so it was exciting eating in the dorms at first, but getting sick my freshman year made me aware of the less appealing side to dorm food,” said biosystems engineering sophomore Matt Crowder.
Crowder was one of 29 MSU students affected by the E. Coli outbreak in East Complex in fall 2008 from a commercial lettuce contamination.
“I would not wish E. coli on my worst enemy,” he said. “It was the worst sickness I’ve ever had.”
MSU division of residential and hospitality services collaborating with the Ingham County Health Department reacted immediately to the outbreak, pulling together all infected students to work on determining the source of the contamination.
“I spent five days in the hospital, and the health department visited me there to interview me about exactly what I ate for the last week,” Crowder said.
MSU’s response to the E. coli outbreak was crucial; the university immediately informed students through e-mail and provided updates on their website.
“We took every precaution,” Haskell said. “We even pulled turkey because many of the sick students said they had eaten turkey sandwiches with lettuce. We went through a lot of testing looking for a common thread.”
The Detroit-based vendor, Aunt Mid’s Produce Company, was eventually identified as the source of the outbreak.
“I first became aware of the E. coli outbreak on Sept. 15, and we did not reintroduce lettuce from a different company until Nov. 11,” Haskell said.
Although it was the first MSU residence hall contamination in 30 years, the contamination was covered nationally in the days following the outbreak.
“We took a big hit on that even though E. coli was happening all over the country, but the whole experience taught us a lot so when the Norovirus hit in April we were prepared,” Haskell said.
Norovirus, the second outbreak of the academic year, hit Shaw Hall on Apr. 1. Approximately 30 students were hospitalized with Norovirus symptoms.
“Norovirus wasn’t foodborne, but to be safe we switched to full service of most every item to prevent cross contamination with students in Shaw and installed hand sanitizer dispensers,” Haskell said. “We provided sick packets to residents so they wouldn’t have to leave their rooms; we were just taking care of our residents, really just doing our jobs.”
The campus cafeteria system had two bacteria breakouts in the 2008-2009 school year (photo credit: Emily Lawler).
As an effect of the two recent dorm-related illnesses on campus, students often relate bulk foods to dangers and recalls. According to MSU food science professor Elliot Ryser, cafeteria food served in bulk is no more likely to be contaminated than any other food source.
“When feeding a large number of people it is easier to notice contamination,” Ryser says. “If 400 people eat potato salad in a cafeteria, you can see the outbreak, but if 400 people buy potato salad at a grocery store and scatter and serve it to people in their homes, then it’s harder to tell where the contamination came from.”
While bulk food is not more susceptible to contamination, it is easier to detect when contaminations do occur, allowing for action to control the problem. MSU has been known to react quickly when problems do occur.
“We live in a day in age where there are occasionally recalls and we follow very strict protocols on what to do if they occur,” said Joe Petroff, MSU residential and hospitality occupational health and safety officer.
Preventing outbreaks starts with the training and enforcement of food handling procedure.
“Before the food is put out it is as safe as any other source of food; it becomes dangerous when it sits out and is handled,” Ryser said.
MSU follows the Michigan Department of Agriculture’s food codes for food storage and handling and are inspected regularly. All MSU food service employees go through an extensive training when they are hired as well as an annual recertification, said Petroff, who is responsible for training residential employees.
“All employees go through a significant training to learn how to handle food and keep things clean and safe. The staff is well-informed not to come to work if they show any sings at all of illness and are not penalized for that,” he said.
While food contamination is a main concern of students and staff, cafeteria food safety also encompasses the sustenance of the menus and nutritional value of the food offered in the MSU cafeterias is continually developing.
“Studies that I have done have shown students eat healthier in the residence halls than when living in off campus,” said Sharon Hoerr, a food science and human nutrition professor. “It is very possible to eat very healthfully in the residence halls; people just need to make some choices.”
While the cafeterias offer healthy options, the options force students to make difficult decisions regarding maintaining a healthy diet.
“Understanding what is healthy helped me have a balanced plate while my friends had entire plates of mac and cheese with Cheetos on the side,” said Nicole Goldman, a food science senior and former president of the Food Science Club. “My plate was always balanced, and the dorms make that easy with so many choices like the large salad bars with lots of fruits and veggies.”
The 13 MSU dinning halls aim to provide healthy options as well as the typical college cafeteria staples.
“People say that want to eat healthy but burgers and pizza still rule, so healthy is a hard thing to nail down; it is always different what people consider healthy,” Haskell said. “People acquaint healthy with fresh, so we have a lot of made to order food.”
The cafeterias follow the American Cancer Society’s “The New American Plate” as a nutritional tool and aim to buy local fresh food including entirely Michigan grown apples and are working towards Michigan meat products and more fresh than frozen vegetables.
“I like that you can see people making the food, and it’s not in a back room somewhere; everyone can see it, so that makes you feel more comfortable about what you’re eating,” Crowder said.
While there are healthy options, making the nutritious choice can seem daunting. Maintaining a healthy diet while eating in cafeterias has less to do with what you put on your plate and more with how much of it, Hoerr said. Controlling potions can be difficult in the cafeteria setting, but portion size is crucial for a healthy lifestyle.
“Portion size and eating rate are most important; anything in access causes serious problems,” she said. “With unlimited service there is a risk of over eating since students feel they need to eat their money’s worth.”
Whether they frequented the soft-serve ice cream or stuck to the salad bar, most students agree the convenience of prepared meals anytime of the day is missed once they shift to off campus living.
“Living off campus I definitely miss the dorm food but less for its quality and more for its convenience,” Goldman said. “I liked that there was a wide variety of foods available to me at any time in the day because sometimes I’m just too tired or busy to cook.”
Tips for Staying Hot and Healthy While Eating Dorm Food from Food Science and Human Nutrition Professor Sharron Hoerr:
1) Slow it Down and enjoy it: “Eating slowly helps, try to take at least 20 min to finish meal,” she said.
2) Good-bye Trays: While many cafeterias are going trayless, even if yours is not choose not to use one to help control your potions. “Going trayless helps because can only eat what you can carry.”
3) Save the best for last: “If you eat your veggies and fruit first you are less likely to overeat.”
4) Slow down with the Cheese: “I notice that cheese is something that students love to use and using it as more of a flavoring agent rather than something you’re going to fill up on would be smart since it has so many calories.”
I stood behind the bar with my hands raised looking at the crowd of hundreds in my SoCo-soaked boots. At that moment I looked around and wondered what the fuck I was doing at Tripper’s flipping around liquor bottles on a Sunday night when most MSU students were at the library studying for midterms.
design credit: Brianna Ritivoy, photo credit: Kara Keller
I had to think back eight weeks to answer my question.
On Thursday, three days before the first round, my manager asked me if I would be interested in making some drinks for a competition.
“Uh, maybe,” I thought. “I’m not even a bartender anymore; I haven’t been since August, so I’m not exactly confident in my drink-making abilities let alone being judged on them.”
After she told me half of the Tripper’s contestants dropped out, I needed to give her an answer by close and I had to create an original drink recipe by Sunday night, I was floored. But in my usual bite-off-more-than-I-can-chew style, I agreed and got excited about creating (and taste-testing) my new drink.
After much recipe searching, tweaking and making, I gave up and decided to make an Orange Crush Bomb – a Tripper’s signature shot – into a drink and just wing it at Old Chicago on Sunday.
“How hard could it be? I’m just making two drinks, and I know that they taste amazing; I’m going to win for sure!”
I invited my friends and coworkers to come eat some pizza and cheer for me. I had no idea what I was getting myself into and really had no idea how prepared the other bartenders were.
I thought the competition was about personality and drink taste and only a few weeks long. If I lost, oh well, at least I’d get my Sunday nights back. If I won, I’d get to tell my managers how sweet I am. This is a win-win situation, right?
Wrong! Turns out, this competition was a pretty big deal.
Banzai Energy Drink and City Pulse were sponsoring the Banzai Cocktail Wars with a grand prize trip to Las Vegas. The Cocktail Wars pinned 48 contestants from 12 Lansing bars against each other in an eight-week long final four bracket style competition complete with a Blind Pig losers bracket.
Yeah, this was definitely more than just making a drink.
Sarah explained the judging rules to all of us: 20 points for audience voting, 30 points for flair and 50 points for drink taste.
So people had flair? And this flair is?
I found out that Inky, my competition, had plenty of flair. This flair included blue martini glasses, special garnishes, blue rock sugar and, oh yeah, a freaking blowtorch! My Flair? Oh, just a bit of smiling and red sprinkles. I was doomed.
She had two full sleeve tattoos, a cut off camouflage tank top and a cheering section that took up half of the bar. Me and my eight cheering girlfriends didn’t stand a chance.
I put on my happy face and made my drink anyway. I lost but walked away with an invitation to compete in the Blind Pig bracket and a suggestion to add sour to my drink. As my competitive side started to come out, I knew I was not quitting without beating someone.
Poston pours out her signature drink in the heat of competition.
I practiced the whole next week and the Orange Crush went from an orange drink in a boring pint glass to a martini rimmed with Strawberry Pop Rocks and an orange. It was sexy and delicious, so what wasn’t to love?
The next week I competed at a small Lansing dive bar that I’ve never heard of – the Colonial. I only had one person cheering for me, but I was determined to kick some ass. I beat a boy who wasn’t a bartender but decided to compete as a favor to his uninterested girlfriend. I walked away with a smirk on my face and an invitation to compete at Leo’s Outpost the following Sunday.
At the log cabin themed Leo’s, I arrived with my one fan feeling pretty confident after my last win. I was ready to bring it until I saw my competition talking and laughing with the judges and competition organizers. I was nervous, but then I tasted his drink. Let’s just say, the main liquors were different flavors of Smirnoff and it tasted like something I made in my freshman dorm room. The judges agreed, and I was on my way to the next round.
The following week I was told the marketing director was organizing a photo shoot for the remaining contestants.
“Oh God, a photo shoot? On Saturday morning? In Lansing?”
After getting lost for 20 minutes I found the creepy warehouse that we were shooting at. While I waited for an hour freezing without heat to get my picture taken, I got to chat with Michelle and Christy, two other bartenders. During the photo shoot I had to “look natural” while holding a martini glass still, smiling, being fanned with a cardboard box and having a flashbulb the size of a pizza pointed at my face. I thought it must have been a disaster, but no one would see it right?
No one besides the Greater Lansing Area?!
Oh yeah, my picture, along with seven others, was featured in a full page City Pulse advertisement. I got calls and emails about it, and my sister decided to save it for the “wedding box,” a box that I didn’t know existed, but apparently it’s full of embarrassing photos of me.
“Thanks, Cassie.”
Next week was the semi-finals, and I was competing against my new friend Christy at the Draft House. Obviously I wanted to move on to the finals; they were being held a Tripper’s, but I wouldn’t’ be that upset if I lost to Christy. Knowing I had to step up my flair, I practiced flipping empty drink shakers. Turns out it’s not that impressive compared to the bottle-throwers.
Christy was up first, but she dropped her Smirnoff bottle and shattered it.
“Good, no pressure. I can’t do worse than that, I might even rock it.”
Well, I dropped a bottle too, but luckily mine landed on the bar mats that were put down minutes before. Because of a quick recovery I won by four points and was headed to the finals!
In the off-week I practiced my shaker-flipping and bottle-throwing skills meanwhile Tripper’s developed some photos.
When I walked in to work on Thursday I found 50 of my pictures staring back at me, including six poster-sized portraits above the bar!
Poston pumps up the crowd (photo credit: Kara Keller).
I was everywhere.
There was even another quarter page City Pulse ad, featuring just me.
“Great,” I thought. “More filler for the wedding box.”
I was super nervous but excited; I was the only person representing Tripper’s on our home turf. I was set to compete against a randomly-drawn wild card bartender. If I won, I’d face Inky again.
Not that many wild card bartenders showed up and, as fate would have it, I had to compete against my newly ex-boyfriend, who was also a coworker. The air was thick with irony, but of course I pulled myself together and won!
Next I was up against Inky and her blowtorch. Even though I had my flipping, throwing and even a cute little saying (“Tripper’s, I’ve got a crush on you”), I still couldn’t beat her.
Michelle, from Brandigan Brothers, won against the crowd favorite, Curry, and moved to the final round. Both were amazing, but Inky won and walked away with the trip to Vegas and an oversized cocktail trophy.
Maybe it was destiny or maybe it was her intimidating blowtorch, but Inky was the Cocktail Champion. I reassured myself with a few Orange Crushes and called it a night. I had a great run on the competitive cocktail circuit, but I have to admit, it sure will be nice to lose the Monday morning hangovers.
Feminism.
A word most often heard in history classes, associated with bra-burning and the revolutationary times of the 60′s.
The Women's Study Lounge in the Union is a reminder of a more sex-segregated time at MSU (photo credit: Emily Lawler).
Many students at Michigan State University have misconceptions about the feminist movement and are unaware that it still exists.
“I haven’t heard anything about it on campus. I never hear anything about it, ever,” said Kelsey Hansen, a telecommunication and criminal justice junior. Hansen refers to feminism and her experience with it at MSU. She said the only thing she knew about feminism’s purpose was the effort to equalize the rights of women to the rights that men have.
Hansen is not alone, and that is the general notion that most students have. However, there is an organization on campus that is fighting to bring awareness and clarification to what feminism is.
The MSU Women’s Council is a progressive feminist organization on campus, said Chelsea Gladney, a junior who co-chairs the council. The group meets once a week and has approximately 35 regular members.
“‘Feminism is the radical notion that women are people too,’” said Gladney, quoting the slogan that the MSU Women’s Council has printed on their t-shirts.
Many of the weekly meetings held by the MSU Women’s Council focus on the stereotypes that members and feminists in general face. According to Gladney, the portrayal of feminism as an aggressive and negative movement is inaccurate.
“It’s supposed to be strong and it’s supposed to be empowering, not in any way demeaning to anyone,” she said.
Gladney pointed out that while feminism is characterized by activism, it is also a belief system that can be held by anyone and is an international concept.
“Feminism is for everyone, it really is for everyone. It’s not just for middle-class white women who have all the opportunities. It’s for black, Asian, Hispanic, men, women, lesbian, gays, transgenders, it’s for everyone. It’s not just for people of this country. We have a very different form of feminism than [other nations] do somewhere else, but they still have their own forms of feminism. It’s international,” Gladney said.
A fact that students may be surprised about is male participation in feminism. Gladney said that the MSU Women’s Council has three male members that attend the weekly meetings, and if a man believes in women’s equality he is a feminist.
Killian Lynam, a general business and pre-law junior, said that he believes that feminism belongs at MSU and society in general.
“I think that [feminists] are advocates for women’s equality. I don’t think that they are any different than people who advocate for racial equality. I think there is definitely a place for [feminism],” said Lynam.
Lynam said that misconceptions, such as all feminists are lesbians, is the result of ignorant thinking.
“I think that feminism is a really misunderstood concept. I think that the sort of radical element pierces through most people’s minds, when really it shouldn’t be taken as threatening,” Lynam said.
Kristina Banister Quynn, a visiting assistant professor who teaches WRA and IAH classes at MSU, uses women’s texts and feminist ideas in the way she teaches and the readings she assigns to her students.
Dr. Quynn explained that feminism might not be as prevalent and visible today as it has been before, but that it does still exist. She cited the Take Back the Night event, hosted by the MSU Women’s Council, which occurs on campus each year as a strong example of feminism on campus.
“The Take Back the Night march here on campus, which I think is very well attended, and it’s about women getting together and having a candlelight march through spaces where they would feel uncomfortable walking alone at night, and say ‘We won’t be afraid, we will take back the night, and be able to walk on our own,’” she said.
Female mannequins model "kiss me" shirts ins in a union storefront (photo credit: Emily Lawler).
According to Gladney, the Take Back the Night (TBTN) occurs annually at MSU and will be held on Apr. 20 of this year. The event is held to support survivors of sexual assault and encourages them to stand up and tell their stories. Workshops for both men and women are available during the day.
“These events help women and men heal and come together as a community. TBTN lends strength, and I like to think that it lets everyone know that they are not alone and that people are still working for their cause… Working to end violence against women comes along with feminism. We want to end violence towards all people,” Gladney said.
Feminism has not transformed, but rather, transitioned into a more inclusive movement of women from all backgrounds, Quynn said. There are now multiple types of feminisms, such as pro-choice or lesbian Chicana feminisms. This inclusiveness moves toward including all women, not just middle-class Caucasian women.
According to Quynn, although the negative stereotypes regarding feminism still exist, it can come back into a positive light.
“Nothing shuts down conversation or makes people more wary than claiming to be [a feminist]. I can, however, claim to be studying and interested in issues of sex and gender, and immediately people’s ears perk up. All in all, I think labels come and go, fading in and out of popularity, and who knows maybe ‘feminism’ will make a come back,” Quynn said.
For this month’s Hot & Healthy, keep things light, lemony and lovely with Marker’s pasta salad just in time for spring!
And once you try out that salad, get ready to toss her salad with this month’s scandalous sex act. Just please the perineum with your tongue, let things heat up and then indulge in some more pasta salad!
College relationships. To many, college love is the graduation from high school crushes and puppy dog love to mature relationships that, hopefully, offer promises of a bright future, post graduation and beyond – as long as you survive the ‘break up season.’
Every year between January and March, couples will begin to split for what appears to be no good reason. You may notice it among your group of friends. Couples who have dated for months and years alike will slowly begin to break things off in hopes of finding something new.
Kate Mortensen, an economics junior, has experienced relationship troubles nearly every winter.
“Its just general unhappiness,” explains Mortensen. “Everything will be going smoothly for months, but every winter things just seem to go downhill, until spring, and everything suddenly will be perfect again… It just seems like we get the winter blues or something.”
Mortensen’s relationship stresses are not unlike many around campus and are generally dismissed by students as mere winter blues; however, they may actually be side effects from a mood disorder called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). SAD, as stated by the Mayo Clinic, is a type of depression that starts at the same time every year, usually during the winter months, and can lead to moodiness and irritability. Other symptoms include hopelessness, anxiety, loss of energy, social withdrawal and weight gain. SAD is treatable, and treatment ranges from UV light exposure to prescription drugs; however, tanning is a simpler solution that will give you the same benefits without pricey doctor visits.
Tanning may be the solution.
Sarah Munkacsy, owner and operator of Bronze Bay Tanning in downtown East Lansing is a strong believer that tanning is a viable treatment for SAD and a better alternative than taking prescription drugs.
“A lot of people come in and say ‘I’m really depressed,’” she said. “[Personally] I feel so much better when I tan.”
Munkacsy, who was diagnosed several years ago with SAD, spent several winters taking antidepressants like Prozac in an attempt to return to her normal, vibrant self.
“I just didn’t like how I felt. I usually have a type A personality, and I just didn’t feel like myself,” she said.
Upon being asked about her relationship with her husband, Munkacsy said she did not feel like she changed toward him. Her husband, who works with her at their tanning salon, told a different story, signaling that she was quite moody before she began treatment.
After several winters of taking Prozac, Munkacsy approached her doctor asking if there were any other treatment options for her SAD. Her doctor suggested tanning two to three times a week, and she hasn’t looked back.
“It’s so much better than drugs,” she said. “I feel like myself again.”
What is it about tanning that makes people feel better? Katie Edwards, an employee at Bronze Bay Tanning, explained it in simple terms.
Edwards had recently worked on a research project involving tanning and its general effects on the body. According to her research, light exposure leads to two different mood elevating chemical reactions. The first is the production of vitamin D, which studies suggest is directly related to moods; that is, the more vitamin D you have in your system, the happier you tend to be. The second reaction is the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin, as with vitamin D, is stimulated by light exposure and is directly linked to moodiness and possibly depression. During the summer months, most Michiganders are active and readily get sufficient light exposure; however, with the typically overcast winters, light and warm days are hard to come by. Therefore, less sunlight means less vitamin D and serotonin, and as a result also means moodiness, depression and a strain on your relationships.
SAD is suspected to affect up to 20 percent of the general population; however, Munkacsy believes most cases go undiagnosed and dismissed as moodiness or winter blues.
“I have tried tanning and do feel a lot better after I go,” said Mortensen. “I’ve never officially been diagnosed with [SAD], but whatever winter moodiness I have, it clears it up pretty well.”
Mortensen, who has struggled with relationships during the aforementioned ‘break up season,’ went on to talk about her relationships.
“It seemed like I’d get in a lot of petty fights pretty readily for no reason,” she said, “but since I started tanning it’s been a lot easier over the winter months. I just hope that [my boyfriend] feels the same way.”
“I think that most people aren’t educated about [SAD],” said Munkacsy. She suggests that anyone interested in tanning and its positive affects on mood should visit www.tanningtruth.com.
“It’s such an easy fix. If people knew how much better you feel after tanning, a lot more people would be doing it,” said Mortensen.
So before you break off another relationship between the months of January and March, try getting a tan. The results could save your relationship and make you feel more like yourself again.
It’s college, right? When textbooks run $500 a semester and paying a parking meter is difficult, some students are looking for ways to eat for free. A growing number of MSU students are finding an alternative way of getting their groceries, and let’s just say this practice requires a strong stomach.
Dumpstering or dumpster diving is, well, exactly how it sounds. It has become a bi-monthly routine for some students. The downside is climbing into dumpsters and rifling through garbage to possibly find a couple of unharmed cans of soup or a bag of partially bruised apples.
“My experience was kind of a letdown,” said Katie Adams, a professional writing senior, of her first unsuccessful dumpster diving trip.
When the concept was explained to me, I imagined opening a dumpster to find bags of bagels, loaves of bread or boxes of unharmed rolls. I pictured them being available to reach from the bin and take home to toast for breakfast the next morning. This, however, was not the case when I — excuse the pun– dove into the challenge. After three dumpsters full of empty cups, plastic bags and coffee-stained boxes, I found the ends of a few bread loaves mixed in with other trash. I was an amateur, at best. I gave up my first attempt at freeganism after three hours and five dumpsters filled with nothing but garbage.
The upside, however, is free groceries, and potentially a lot of them.
“The trick is to be systematic,” Adams said. “Some of my friends who do it all of the time get a whole trunk full of bread. I guess you just have to pick the right place and time of day and hopefully you’ll get lucky.”
Jessica Checkeroski, a studio art senior, is a bit more dedicated to the cause. She doesn’t consider herself a freegan, though she goes dumpstering about twice a month.
“I look for bread, fruit, and vegetables. Anything else like cereal or vegan hot dogs is just a nice surprise,” said Checkeroski.
Sticking mainly to grocery stores with compactors or bakeries, Checkeroski doesn’t feel nervous about the cleanliness of the food that she picks up because most of it is packaged or surrounded by other food.
“[It’s] like finding a garbage bag of just bagels or a box of just potatoes,” she said.
Checkeroski won’t just take anything, though.
“If something looks gross, it probably is. I used to think the idea of taking food out of a dumpster seemed unsafe but once I went, I realized that the food isn’t in that bad of shape at all. Especially now that it is winter, my logic is that if it is frozen its shelf life is longer.”
Checkeroski has never known anyone to get sick from the food they’ve found on a dumpster dive but understands why it won’t sell in stores.
“I get why the food can’t be sold – bruises, freshness, too ripe – but [for it] not to be used is wasteful,” said Checkeroski.
In regards to issues of legality, Checkeroski has never experienced any problems, though she has heard of others who have.
Hannah Nowicki, an employee at Great Harvest Bread Company in Okemos, had never heard the term freegan before, but she has heard stories of college students rummaging through their dumpster after hours.
“About 2 to 3 months ago we were taking out the garbage while closing down for the night, and the girls found some students digging through the dumpster,” said Nowicki.
Since Great Harvest Bread Company gives their extra bread to soup kitchens in the area, the students could not have been finding much more than a few loaf ends.
“My friends who were working told them that they wouldn’t find anything, but the students refused to leave. The police were called because they were trespassing,” said Nowicki.
Checkeroski feels that the food she finds in dumpsters is fair game.
“Once something is in the trash, let me decide if the risk is worth taking or not,” she said.
Freeganism isn’t just about dumpster diving. It is an entire lifestyle based off of surplus food and materials that are put to waste daily by consumers and manufacturers. The freegan movement was started in the 1990s as part of the environmentalist and anti-globalization trends happening at the time and has grown quite large in New York, Los Angeles and London — where foraging waste is called bin-diving or skipping.
According to freegan.info, those who first practiced freeganism still purchased items. They tried to boycott major companies that tested products on animals, violated human rights or abused the environment, qualities that didn’t set them apart from most activist groups of their kind. After realizing that every purchase they made was still “supporting something deplorable,” freegans took on a new, unique set of principles. By almost fully rejecting the entire economic system, freegans maintain the concept of boycotting all things mass-produced, animal tested or environmentally unfriendly.
Although dumpster diving is the most common practice, many freegans are also vegans. Vegans chose a diet that consists of only animal-free foods for political and health reasons. Freegans often adopt this lifestyle for the same reasons but also because a cruelty-free diet is more economical than one that includes animal products.
Freegans aren’t alone in their quest for free food. Some students who do not wish to dig through garbage have applied for bridge cards as a way of avoiding the cost of groceries. Bridge cards are like electronic food stamps and are offered by the federal government to anyone who qualifies (qualifications vary from state to state).
“I would say most of the people who have it need it. It’s hard to say exactly who does,” said Alan O’Donnell, a human biology senior. “Technically, I’d probably survive without it, but it definitely helps.”
Applications can be filled out online, and they ask questions about personal income but not about parents’ income or whether the applicant is claimed as a dependant. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is an entitlement program, meaning anyone who applies and meets the requirements will automatically be given a bridge card. The idea is that the card will help facilitate the costs of monthly spending on groceries and not be the sole means for providing food.
The card is issued by household, so everyone who applies is given a different amount to spend each month depending on his or her income. Bridge card owners cannot purchase alcohol, cigarettes or household items (including toothpaste), and are limited by the amount they are given by the government.
According to Marie Boyle and David Holben in their book, Community Nutrition in Action, one of the drawbacks of the card is that it does not necessarily allot enough money to buy nutritional items, so the USDA and the DHHS are concerned that bridge card users cannot afford to follow the dietary guidelines that they set for Americans. Because of this, these organizations are rallying to give more money to people with bridge cards, which could mean a lot to students who struggle to make ends meet.
Though my first experience with freeganism didn’t yield anything but a few photos of garbage, I feel like the dumpster divers are on to something. If you can stomach the idea of getting into a pile of trash, you can walk away from the experience with food for the week or at least a story to tell friends. Then again, not everyone is cut out for the freegan lifestyle – I stopped trying after a few hours and ended up at Noodles & Company. Inside, that is.
For this month, sauce things up with Marker’s “BOOM Roasted BBQ Sauce.” Check out this Bar-B-Cutie!
To keep things saucy once you’re done indulging with some BBQ pulled pork, check out this sex move from Cosmopolitan, the saucy spoons! Both partners lie on their side facing the same direction, and the giver enters the receiver from behind. This position allows the giver’s hands extra access to pleasure the receiver with touching them in all the places that count.
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