Police Free Penn: Toward an Abolitionist Future
Police Free Penn wants more than just the abolition of the Penn Police.
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Police Free Penn wants more than just the abolition of the Penn Police.
Something I’ve noticed about my fellow Gen Zers is that we share a peculiar trait that isn’t present in the generations before us: the desperate need to be different from everyone else. Whether it’s about the trendiest fashion, music, opinions, or literally anything—we're always looking for something to set us apart from the rest.
By now, you’ve probably seen the images of Grimes reading The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels after her "semi"–separation with Elon Musk. But Grimes’ weird photo op is more than bizarre; it is symbolic of the world we currently exist in. We are living in a time where the exploitation of labor and resources are pushed to their extremes in a frantic effort to meet the Global North’s boundless consumption. In such a time, there is a dire need for class consciousness and organization to remedy these conditions.
There's lots to do on a Saturday at Penn: eat bagels and unpack your previous night's shenanigans, twiddle your thumbs in the Van Pelt reading room to mimic the feeling of productivity, or maybe even walk into Center City.
Content Warning: Mentions of Sexual Violence on Campuses
As the COVID–19 pandemic rages on—growing worse with new variants—vaccinations are increasingly important to protect people from illness and death. In recent data released by the Kaiser Family Foundation on August 18, 72% of the US population has received at least one dose of a COVID–19 vaccine. However, of that 72%, 58% represents white Americans with only 10% of those who identify as Black Americans having received the vaccine. Although recent data reveals that recent vaccinations are occurring in the Black and Hispanic populations, there is still a glaring gap between white and Black vaccination rates.
Amid the COVID–19 pandemic, the severity of the housing and rent crisis in the United States is only increasing. There's a dire lack of affordable housing and rent for tenants across the country. As the pandemic continues to unemployment and loss of income for many, the rent crisis has come to the forefront of our collective consciousness.
TW: Graphic depictions of violence against women, gendered violence
Last summer, in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests and the COVID–19 pandemic, bakeries across the country participated in Bakers Against Racism bake sales: virtual fundraisers that donate to organizations fighting for racial justice for Black people in the United States.
When we come to college, there is always a nagging fear that we might not fit in, or that we won’t like our major, the other students, or our professors. A fear that people might not like us for whatever reason—who we are, what we look like, our interests—permeates our beginnings.
13 Going on 30. Clueless. Brokeback Mountain. Love, Actually. 10 Things I Hate About You. Bridget’s Jones Diary. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. The Notebook. Call Me by Your Name. What does every classic and iconic romance film have in common—You guessed it!
Maybe you’ve watched one of BuzzFeed’s videos like “Women Try Manspreading For a Week” or listened to a couple of episodes of the podcast Call Her Daddy. It could be one of the episodes where the hosts attempt to convince you that men who prey on women for casual sex are just “masters of the dating game” or another one where they discuss a woman's "ranking" based on her physical features and attractiveness. Even if you haven’t consumed either of those media, you’ve probably seen some catchy “feminist” slogans on T–shirts and merch like “Feminist AF” or “Yes to Masks, No to Bras,” or some company’s pink branding which supposedly tells you that they care about women’s issues.
Since the genesis of society, female sexuality has been demonized and policed by men and women alike. Both repression and expression of female sexuality negatively categorize women in ways that are used to oppress them. Yet another iteration of this policing is the Madonna–whore complex, which is painfully evident in American society and abroad. While this disposition toward women is inherently misogynistic, it also provides insight into why and how women’s bodies are hypersexualized and fetishized—primarily trans women and Black women.
Up until a couple of years ago, I described myself as Indian for almost my entire life.
For a long time, film, literature, and celebrities have constructed a European beauty standard centered around white men and women. Thick eyebrows, curly hair, big lips, aquiline noses, different body shapes, and of course darker skin tones were considered unattractive as recently as the early 2000s, forcing many people of color to alter their appearance to be deemed beautiful. But today, with prominent white internet personalities like Kylie Jenner and Belle Delphine, we're witnessing the abandonment of the ethnocentric beauty standards. Now women—regardless of ethnicity— are mimicking specific ethnic features and appropriating culture to increase their sex appeal and marketability. Non–Black women copy and profit off of Black features, and likewise, non–Asian women exploit Asian traditional dress and culture.
Glass skin and perfectly–toned bodies have become the standard for beauty on social media. Either you are beautiful and hot because you look like an Instagram influencer or you’re unattractive because you don’t. No doubt influencers and celebrities are incredibly beautiful and handsome, but edited photos and plastic surgery can set unrealistic standards for young people with insecurities about their own bodies and appearance. The #bodypositivity movement has attempted to resolve these issues—but it isn’t enough.
As vintage Nike crewnecks and Champion joggers become essential components of the drip, thrift shopping— or thrifting—to find classic gems has become a favorite pastime of the American millennial and teen. The pleasure of finding affordable and fashionable gems at thrift stores is a joy many of us can relate to, but not everyone views thrifting as a fun shopping trip with friends. Some "industrious" people see thrifting as a potential business to make big profits.
The Hello Kitty ACAB and the Hatsune Miku says “All Cops are Bastards!” memes are a new internet cultural symbol present in Twitter profile pics, Instagram feeds, and TikTok audios. Although Hello Kitty ACAB is supposedly a radical critique of the prison industrial complex, these images are instead indicative of the sanitization of violence, performative activism, and the commodification and commercialization of the radical aesthetic. Essentially, “woke” memes and pretty infographics are antithetical to their very purpose.
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