This is the Shwe: Screw the Charmin Ultra Strong Bears, use a bidet
Shwetha Sundarrajan is a junior journalism major and writes “This is the Shwe” for The Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
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Shwetha Sundarrajan is a junior journalism major and writes “This is the Shwe” for The Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Shwetha Sundarrajan is a journalism major and writes “This is the Shwe” for The Daily News. Her views do not necessarily reflect those of the paper.
Welcome back to another episode of The Coven! Brewing in the cauldron this week is representation in the Super Bowl. How well did it include minorities in its airing this year? How did it compare to the past airings? What could it have done better to represent minorities? Get answers to all this and more, in this week's episode of The Coven!
Welcome to this week's episode of How It's Played! This week, we'll be discussing the recent controversy surrounding Blizzard's banning of one of their pro Hearthstone players. Did Blizzard ban the player because of China's influence? Was Blizzard just in applying the rules in this case? Find out all of this and more on this week's episode of How It's Played!
Welcome to this week's episode of Input 2! This week we discuss the possibility of the hit movie "The Princess Bride" returning. How has he original held up through out the decades? Could the second possibility uphold the perfection of the first? Find out this and more in this week's episode of Input 2!
Welcome to this week's episode of Input 2! This week, we cover the latest Netflix release, "Tall Girl." While the premise does is unique, does it live up to Netflix's constant advertising of its greatness? Find out all of this and more on Input 2!
Welcome to this week’s episode of How It’s Played! This week, we discuss the recent news surrounding Alec Holowka. How is sexual misconduct handled within the industry? Is this a sign of a larger issue with the egos of gaming personas? Find out all of this and more on this week’s episode of How It’s Played!
Welcome to this week's episode of Input 2! We discuss woman's current representation in films and their issues. Do films allow women to have more prominent and progressive roles, especially within action films? Find out this and more on this week's episode of Input 2!
Animation giant Pixar has been embroiled in a #MeToo controversy of sexual harassment claims against Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter. These complaints from staff members ranged from unwanted hugging to recurring behavior of grabbing, kissing and making comments about physical attributes during meetings and at work events. In addition to being increasingly physical, multiple staff members told managers that Mr. Lasseter had become domineering. In an email apologizing to staff, Lasseter said he’s sorry “to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture they felt crossed the line in any way, shape or form.”
by Shwetha Sundarrajan Animation giant Pixar has been embroiled in a #MeToo controversy of sexual harassment claims against Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter. These complaints from staff members ranged from unwanted hugging to recurring behavior of grabbing, kissing and making comments about physical attributes during meetings and at work events. In addition to being increasingly physical, multiple staff members told managers that Mr. Lasseter had become domineering. In an email apologizing to staff, Lasseter said he’s sorry "to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture they felt crossed the line in any way, shape or form.” Lasseter has since left his position as Chief Creative Officer and was replaced by Frozen co-director and co-writer Jennifer Lee and Inside Out director Pete Docter. However, Pixar struggled to part ways with Lasseter. Traditionally known as a boys club, Pixar has had several instances of not treating women and people of color equally. For example, Brenda Chapman was the first credited female director of a Pixar feature film, Brave. However, she was fired halfway through production due to a disagreement between Chapman and Lasseter. Rashida Jones, actress and writer, said she left a Pixar assignment early due to the way the studio treated female and minority voices. Since Lasseter’s firing, Pixar has taken measures to improve its workplace culture. In February 2018, Disney held a “day of listening” to improve the workplace at Pixar and Walt Disney Studios. However, Pixar has been hesitant to address Lasseter's wrongdoings. Instead, they choose to hold him at the same celebrity status he had during his Pixar days. In a statement announcing Lasseter’s departure, Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, did not address the reasons. Mr. Iger instead emphasized Mr. Lasseter’s achievements, crediting him with “reinventing the animation business, taking breathtaking risks and telling original, high-quality stories that will last forever.” With all of these controversies of inequality in the workplace and sexual harassment plaguing Pixar, it was interesting to see a new Pixar SparkShorts that addresses these topics. Purl, directed by Kristen Lester, takes a shot at the toxic "bro" culture in workplaces. The short film centers in on Purl, a new hire at B.R.O. Capital, who is repeatedly shunned by her white, male, suit-wearing co-workers as she navigates her first few days at work. The film follows Purl as she transforms herself to fit in at her company when she eventually realizes that she’s simply helping perpetuate the toxic behavior. "A few times during my career in animation, I would be in situations similar to those in the short and I would feel very alone," Lester told Glamour. "I hoped that by making the short, people would watch and know that they are not alone and that being accepted for who you are is possible." Perhaps with the firing of Lasseter and with the release of Purl, Pixar might be ready to change for the better.
by Shwetha Sundarrajan UPDATE: Kelly has officially plead "not guilty" to all charges. Original story follows below.
UPDATE: Kelly has officially plead "not guilty" to all charges. Original story follows below.
by Shwetha Sundarrajan Spectrum, one of Ball State’s LGBTQ+ student groups, hosted their first-ever Queer Monologue event where participants would present monologues regarding personal struggles with being queer and addressing problems within the LGBTQ community. “Queer Monologue is a collection of experiences, essentially that either come from our own members or authors who gave us permission online to tell their stories,” said Brooklyn Arizmendi, the president of Spectrum. “So it’s a collection of intersexual, queer experiences from all backgrounds, races, gender, class, and any sort of intersectionality.” The event kicked off with several members presenting a monologue regarding being queer in a theatrical manner. As the evening progressed, the stories became increasingly personal as they touched base on coming out, issues with the queer community and queer people of color, and more. “I think it’s especially important because people often mistake the queer community’s fight to be over ever since gay marriage was legalized. But we’re still being systemically attacked on all levels,” Arizmendi said. They continued, “And there's so much to learn, and gender and sexuality are so fluid and there are so many people who still don’t understand. So when we have events like these, I hope that people come and take away something, a sense of our community and what that looks like.” At the end of the event, many people in attendance could be seen crying after the final monologue came to a close.
by Shwetha Sundarrajan The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board. 50 years after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., people across the United States will celebrate the legacy of the beloved icon by watching the countless documentaries and movies produced in his wake. Major news outlets will publish tearful commentaries on the late civil rights leader, and social media will be flooded with quotes and pictures of King. He may be loved by the media today, but 50 years ago King’s popularity had sharply declined with the national papers. It all started with a speech he gave on April 4, 1967, popularly known as the ‘Beyond Vietnam’ speech. King said, “There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything on a society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube.” The backlash from the media was swift. The New York Times, in “Dr. King’s Error,” reminded King that his proper battlegrounds were “in Chicago and Harlem and Watts.” In the Washington Post, they said that King had “diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, and his people.” This particular speech caused King to lose many of his followers, including African Americans and causing his white liberal supporters to jump ship due to his threateningly confrontational language. 50 years later, we don’t remember King as the open critic of the government and an opponent of the Vietnam War, we only remember a sanitized version of him. We remember him as a black man embracing all Americans, black and white. Films such as the Oscar-winning film Selma help us cement the memory of 1965 King — a man who only wanted African Americans and white Americans to live equally. Misrepresentations of King are not only found in Films though. Recently, Congressman Steve King also misquoted King on Twitter.
by Shwetha Sundarrajan With the multiple allegations of sexual and physical abuse piling onto singer R. Kelly with the release of the Lifetime documentary Surviving R. Kelly, HBO producers are releasing a new documentary called Leaving Neverland regarding the late Micheal Jackson’s multiple accusations of child molestation. https://www.flickr.com/photos/andosteinmetz/3448098887 Just like R. Kelly furiously denying allegations, the Jackson estate has publicly condemned the documentary which is set to premiere at the Sundance festival. According to a statement from the Jackson estate, “this is yet another lurid production in an outrageous and pathetic attempt to exploit and cash in on Michael Jackson." [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="798"] Image from Movieweb[/caption] Jackson was first accused of child molestation in 1993 by dentist Evan Chandler who claimed that Jackson had sexually abused his 13-year-old son. Although Jackson was cleared of all charges in this instance, the accusations would follow him for decades, even until his death. In 2003, a documentary by British journalist Martin Bashir showed Jackson being intimate with the Arvizo brothers, and in an article by Oxygen magazine said that Jackson “appeared intimate with Gavin, holding hands while Gavin rested his head on Jackson’s shoulder. They said they were 'really close' and 'best friends'. The biggest revelation of the documentary was Gavin telling the camera that he slept in Jackson’s bed, while Jackson's slept on the floor. The documentary also revealed that many children had slept in that same bed, including the Culkin brothers, Macaulay and Kieran. Jackson insisted it wasn’t sexual.” The Sundance Festival’s synopsis of the film reads, “At the height of his stardom Michael Jackson began long-running relationships with two boys, aged 7 and 10, and their families. Now in their 30s, they tell the story of how they were sexually abused by Jackson, and how they came to terms with it years later.” Similar to the R. Kelly controversy, many Michael Jackson fans have flocked to the late singer’s defense, pressuring the Sundance film festival to pull the documentary. However, the festival released a statement saying, “It has come to our attention that some of you may have received messages or social media posts from Michael Jackson fans who would like us to pull the screening of ‘Leaving Neverland,’” the statement read. “Sundance Institute supports artists in enabling them to fully tell bold, independent stories, stories on topics which can be provocative or challenging. We look forward to audiences at the Festival seeing these films and judging the work for themselves, and discussing it afterward.” Similar to Lifetime’s docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, which documents the artist's history of sexual abuse and psychological manipulation of young women and underage girls, and charges of possession of child pornography, Leaving Neverland shows how famous artists like Michael Jackson and R. Kelly can get away with crimes without sacrificing their fame or fortune.
by Shwetha Sundarrajan The new #Thotaudit Twitter campaign is targetting female sex workers and reporting them to the IRS with the hopes of having unreported profits made from sending explicit videos audited. The campaign has started a fiery debate on social media over women making a living through online sex work. The grassroots campaign, started by Facebook user David Wu and was furthered on Twitter by notorious misogynist Daryush “Roosh” Valizadeh over Thanksgiving weekend targeted several sex workers, banning them from various online payment services such as Venmo, Cash App, and Circle Pay. On Valizadeh’s podcast regarding #thotaudit, he said, “A lot of these frustrated young men who are tired of hos coming on their platforms and ruining it” had been excited by the idea of reporting women to the IRS and sought to punish women for “invading a male space to show your boobs and your butt.”
The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board.
by Shwetha Sundarrajan The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte's editorial board. In the Wizarding World where everything is magical (especially the Butterbeer), there was one thing that upset me, a hardcore Harry Potter fan. It was the second installment of the Fantastic Beasts movie. Don’t get me wrong, the first one was fantastic. "The Crimes of Grindelwald," however, not so much. With the script written by J.K. Rowling herself, I truly expected every character to have a developed profile, including the minor characters, like how it was in the original Harry Potter films. But I truly lost faith in the movie when news of Nagini came out. The final trailer showed that Nagini is a creature called a Maledictus, which according to the official website Pottermore, is "a carrier of a blood curse which will ultimately destine them to transform permanently into a beast." But it was the casting of Nagini that enraged a lot of fans like myself. Played by Korean-American actress Claudia Kim, it seemed as if Rowling’s casting choice was to simply include POC’s. Even if that was her intention, her reasoning behind the casting was absurd. According to her statement on Twitter defending her decision, Rowling stated, “The Naga are snake-like mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology, hence the name ‘Nagini.’ They are sometimes depicted as winged, sometimes as half-human, half-snake. Indonesia comprises a few hundred ethnic groups, including Javanese, Chinese, and Betawi. Have a lovely day.” For all the extensive research Rowling does for her books, she definitely missed the mark with Nagini. To clarify, the Nagas descended from Hindu mythology, not Indonesian mythology. According to Wikipedia, “The term Naga in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism denotes divine, semi-divine deities, or a semi-divine race of half-human half-serpent beings that reside in the heavenly Patala (netherworld) and can occasionally take human form.” So why cast Nagini as an East Asian woman when the Nagas themselves should be played by a South Asian actor? Besides, the very concept of making Nagini an Asian woman plays right into the fetishization of Asian peoples and the subservience of women. In the Harry Potter books, Nagini is Voldemort's loyal servant. Furthermore, by making Nagini an Asian woman, Rowling plays right into the disgusting stereotype of the exotic Asian woman fetishized by the white man. And by being the only Asian character, the lack of representation sticks out like a sore thumb.
by Shwetha Sundarrajan International Games Day was celebrated in an open play event on Saturday, November 10th at Bracken Library in honor of International Board Games Week. The event featured tabletop and board games for casual and competitive patrons to play. Games such as Settlers of Catan, Risk, Scrabble, and Tikal were available for eventgoers to play. Joseph Roberts, an Information Services Librarian, says that he was inspired to host this event at Ball State after doing a similar one as a graduate student. “We started doing these five years ago around this time of year. It ties in with a larger international event called International Games Week that is organized by the American Library Association,” Roberts said. Although turnout had been pretty light for the event, there was still a group of students enjoying a game of Catan. “We have a Settlers of Catan tournament that we run on these Saturday events, so there are a few people who are playing Catan now and they’ll ultimately all play four games and no one is eliminated,” Roberts said. Contrary to the ever-growing digital game era, board games have actually grown in popularity. In the last year, board game sales in the U.S. grew by 28 percent, per NPD Group, and global sales increased to $9.6 billion. And that’s what Roberts aims to do with the International Games Day event. “In keeping with the larger purpose of International Games Week is to celebrate the intellectual, social, and recreational value of all sorts of games. We happen to do board games because we have quite a bit of them around here and because of the ongoing popularity,” Roberts said. However, the fun doesn’t end there. Students can check out various board games for up to two weeks, said Head of Educational Technology and Resources Collection Lisa Jarrell. “All students need to bring is their student ID, come to the lower level of Bracken to the Educational technology and resources center and they’ll be able to rent any board game for 2 weeks.” The Educational Technology and Resources Center has over 200 board games for students to check out, including both educational and children's games. According to Jarell, Settlers of Catan is one of the most popular game to be rented.