Unfiltered Magazine

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Unfiltered is a student magazine publication at the University of Minnesota that explores the images and identities of modern culture.

Transcript of Unfiltered Magazine

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WHAT’S INSIDE..............................................................................................................Unfiltered in a Page........................................................................Invisible Illness Views of mental health ...........Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Modified Body mods in the workplace............................................................Hot Wheels The aesthetics of automobiles....................................................Fishing in a Toxic Sea The perils of online dating...........................................................Altering Reality Photoshop and image ethics............................Color Less Do universities have a colorblindness problem?.........................................Why Are You Wearing That? The intentions of dress.........................................................#Harmful The effect of body image hashtags...................................................Not by Sight How going blind shapes self-image..............................................Face Shopping South Korea’s plastic surgery boom....................The Gentleman King A backstage look at gender performance.......................................When Everything Changed My father after his stroke..............................................The Art of Vandalism The career of a street artist................................................Look at Me; Look at This The art of self-portraits..............................................................Cookie-Cutter Candidate Image in politics...........................................................Face Value Qualifications for landing the job..............................................................................................................................Staff Feature

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sion include irritability, a persistent sad mood, hopelessness, fatigue and thoughts of suicide.

Society views mental disorders differently than how they view physical ailments. A person who is stressed to the point of panic attacks may be just as afflicted as someone who is suffering from stomach flu, although it may not be outwardly ap-parent. Anxiety is difficult to see on the outside, but people should not be ostracized. Those suf-fering must be treated with dignity. We just need to be aware of them.

After German’s diagnosis, he did not want to be treated any different. He was hoping that his friends would not look at him with pity or avoid him. “I was hoping people would treat me the same,” he says. And they have.PH

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SAY CHEESE!BY EMILY MONGAN

Thanks to the dawn of social media and digital photography, Americans are taking and sharing more photos than ever before—but just how image obsessed are we?

•Americans take four times as many photos now as we did ten years ago.

•As of Sept. 2011, Facebook was home to 140 billion photos. This is 10,000 times larger than the Library of Congress’ photography collection.

•Every two minutes, more photos are taken than all of humanity took in the 1800s.

•An estimated one trillion photos will be taken by the end of 2014, thanks in part to the rise of the selfie and photo sharing app Snapchat.

POLLS BY ALI LACEY

It’s no question that we’re living in the age of the selfie. We asked college students if they partake in this social media phenomenon, and why and where they take their selfies, if they do.

Do you take selfies?Yes: 17%No: 44%Occasionally: 39%

Why do you take selfies?I look good today: 19%I want to impress others: 6%I don’t: 44%Other: 31% Where do you most often take selfies?Bedroom: 19%Car: 8%Bathroom: 3%Work/School: 3%I don’t: 44%Other: 17%

Who are we dressing for?Ourselves: 62%A significant other: 24%Potential significant others: 10%Other (weather, job, etc.): 4%

SELF-CONFIDENCE REVOLUTION BY NICOLE TIERNEY

Step aside Barbie and Bratz; RealGirls coloring book is making its debut. Terri Birnbaum, a graphic designer and mother of two daughters, brings the 50-page collaboration together along with various other artists who submitted pencil sketches of real girls, then rendered into line art by artist Randall Nelson.

Birnbaum created RealGirls to serve as an al-ternative to the unrealistic representation of girls that saturates mainstream popular culture. RealGirls works to subvert those idealistic main-stream messages and replace them with better ones. “I hope the book will provide girls with images they can identify with, so that every girl might feel empowered to remain proud and confident of the unique and beautiful person she is,” says Birnbaum.

RealGirls is so much more than just a coloring book—it’s a collection of visual messages break-ing stereotypes and defying limitations.

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DATING DATABY SAKSHAM RAI

INVISIBLE ILLNESSHow we view mental health

BY JEFF KNOESPEL

ALEX GERMAN WAS a sophomore at the University of Minnesota. He juggled class, home-work, a job working for the football team and several extra-curricular activities. Naturally, he felt pressured. Every college student experienc-es the pangs of stress, right? That’s what German thought, until his perpetual stress left him feeling worse and worse.

Could anyone see what German was going through? The panic he was feeling was invisible to others. German’s anxiety eventually pushed him to seek professional help in the summer of 2014. Finally, he was diagnosed with an unspec-ified anxiety disorder.

German is one of the 18.2 percent of stu-dents at the University of Minnesota who will be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder at some point in their life. Of those students, 9.6 percent have been diagnosed within the past year. Do students notice this in their peers? We cannot see what is going on in the minds of others.

“Stress is a big factor,” says Dave Golden, a Boynton Public Health Official.

Over 29 percent of all students will be diagnosed with a mental health condition within their lifetime, with 14.3 percent of them being diagnosed within the past year. That means that almost one in ev-ery ten students at the university is suffering from some type of diagnosed mental condition.

“There is a big overlap of those diagnosed with depression and those who report difficulty managing stress,” says Golden. Stress is common to all college students, but how do we regard those who have a different response to stressors than most?

The two most commonly diagnosed mental health conditions at the University of Minnesota are depression and anxiety. Depression affects 19.3 percent of all students in their lifetime, with 7.9 percent being diagnosed within the past year.

Symptoms of anxiety and depression may be difficult to recognize since they may seem so nor-mal to most of us. Anxiety, according to the Anx-iety and Depression Association of America, can include irritability, difficulty sleeping, restlessness, fatigue and muscle tension. Symptoms of depres-

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of students have been diag-nosed with a mental health condition in the past year

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I LAID DOWN on a dentist style chair, an elec-tric buzz obnoxious in my ear, while for four hours the inside of my left arm was prodded and scrapped by a fast moving needle.

One of my girlfriends has had her clavicle der-mals (piercings with a back that is embedded into the skin) raise, teeter and reject every year, only to be re-pierced to their prior diamond fabu-lousness. Another friend’s ear gauges grow larger and more ridiculous with the years.

All three of us are business professionals. We all

at some point have stopped and thought about what it was we were doing to our bodies, and if others were going to be as accepting. What it came down to —be it tattoos, microdermals, or gauges—was that this is what we wanted to do. Nobody was going to tell us not to.

Or were they? I feel I need to address the three most common stigmas around body modifica-tions, to attempt to put them to rest. To start, people say that they are only done by immature and unprofessional people. Another common

misconception is that we can’t get hired if we have chosen to tamper with our bodies in such a way. Lastly, they complain that one day, when we are old and wise, we will regret having done all these things to ourselves.

A first impression of me might, hopefully, include the words classy, sophisticated and formal. I wear heels and dresses regularly and my outward appear-ance is generally well kept. You would never guess that by 21-years-old I had seven tattoos scattered across my body, with a half sleeve in the making.

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Ask any one of us, and we will tell you that the body modifications we have do not define every essence of who we are. They do not affect our brain’s capacity to have intuitive thought, or give us unfriendly dispositions toward our coworkers, nor do they mean we jam out to screamo rock while smoking marijuana in our parent’s base-ment. We have the ability to function in society like anyone else.

According to Forbes, the number of tattooed professionals is slowly rising, and is no longer lim-ited to art-related jobs anymore. A 2010 Pew Re-search poll found that 32 percent of Americans in the 30 to 45 age range have at least one tattoo.

The professional workplace is filled with those of us who crave a bit of originality and uniqueness in our lives. We are nonconformists, not strange. We deserve equal rights in the hiring pool.

I myself act on a standard of doing something because at the time it was exactly what I wanted. As cliché as that is, people do not modify them-selves as a form of rebellion, but to stand out, and to bring something a bit different to the ta-ble. In today’s world of personalization, I can only assume that as society ages, culture will only grow larger and become more accepting.

For all you know, your plastic surgeon boasts full sleeves and your lawyer has a tongue ring.

DON’T HATE ME BECAUSE I’M MODIFIEDDo my tattoos and piercings make it hard to get hired?

BY CERA SYLAR

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AS A GAY, INTERNATIONAL, Asian man in the U.S., I have had interesting encounters of the courting kind. After countless first dates in which I have been stood up, used coupons on and cat-fished, I have developed a strong dislike for online dating. But, I still cling to the hope that maybe the next one is going to be amazing. Maybe.

I cast my line into Okcupid, a dating website and waited to catch a fish.

This is how online dating usually works: it cre-ates a match matrix with the help of questions or character traits. Among other invasive questions I answered, one stood out for me: Will you let your child believe that Santa is real? I looked at this question wondering what it had to do with me finding someone, but the more I thought about it, the more overwhelmed I felt.

I planned out the next ten years of my hypo-thetical love life in my head. This led to a series of irrelevant, but alarming thoughts. What if the perfect guy wants our kids to believe in Santa? Do I want to have a kid here in Amer-ica? I’m not even a U.S. citizen, nor do I come from a culture that believes in Santa!

This is my point: online dating makes you think about things you don’t need to think about. The joy of discovering each other is removed from the equation. I state my preferences so explic-itly that I don’t have to make an effort, and here lies the problem.

So how do I build the perfect honest profile? And with online dating how specific do I want to be in a relationship? I don’t.

The compressed and concentrated image we try to create of ourselves in the virtual sea of matches is misleading. You become a little square box that pops up on someone’s feed, and the chances of your profile being viewed is all a game

of who has the best selfie. Putting your best foot forward, or rather best photo forward, is the name of the game. So, we unconsciously idealize and uphold unrealistic standards.

I recall in my fishing adventures reeling in an absolutely perfect catch. Smart, accomplished, looked good in plaid and seemingly rather sweet; all in all he was a potential keeper. Soon we realized how our conversations were con-tinuously limited to our Okcupid descriptions. Eventually, it didn’t work out. His reason: “You are not the person I thought you were.” And he was right!

We were never the people we said we were. We were the best images of ourselves online and that’s just how we wanted it to be.

Online dating promises the possibility of a first date, numerous lines of “what’s up?” and con-versations based on the listed specific interests that really don’t lead to anything substantial… maybe sex, if that’s what you are looking for, but that’s about it.

If only finding someone was as simple as shoot-ing a fish in a barrel.

OPINION

I LOVE CARS. I love the way they look, the way they sound, and the way they feel when you re-ally push them. I own and drive a Mini Cooper S. When I tell people that, I usually get one of two reactions. The first is something like, “Wow, that is a really small car. You would be dead if you got hit by a truck,” and the second is, “Wow, that is a really small car. But it is SO CUTE.”

The modern Mini Cooper is based off of a car that was originally designed in the 1960s. Ret-ro-look is a popular theme in car design. Recently, the new VW Beetle, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Chevy HHR, Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger were all designed to have a vintage look. People adore these cars.

Something about the design of these cars draws people in. Design is an imperative part of an object’s appeal. People will buy cars just be-cause they look fast or expensive. Some people shop for a new car using more practical criteria like fuel efficiency, trunk space and number of cup holders, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want a car that looks cool. Why are some cars much more desirable for their looks?

Chris Eastman, a self-proclaimed automotive en-

thusiast and car blogger, took no time in confessing which car he thought was the most beautiful. The Jaguar E-Type, he says, because it is “long, curvy and rich looking. It’s elegant.” I agree with him.

Another fan of the Jaguar E-Type was Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the company with his namesake. Ferrari once said that the E-Type was

the most beautiful car ever made. That means a lot coming from the man who made cars like the Ferrari Daytona and 250 GTO (trust me, even though you may have never seen them, they are gorgeous). The E-Type is a two-seat convertible with a long, sloping hood that does not have a single straight line in its design. The entire body is made up of curved metal that hugs the wheels and engine. It looks like a cat, crouched and ready to pounce. It seems alive.

I like cars that use either circles or squares in their design. The circle design is easy to explain: curves look natural, aerodynamic and animalis-tic. We see curves in plants and animals. Curves can be why one person is attracted to another, but I’m not sure how to explain why I like the boxy design of Volvos. I think it’s because the raw simplicity makes them look as though they were designed with just a pencil and a ruler.

My Mini is made up of boxes and curves. I think that is why I like it so much. Two of the most basic geometric elements make up the de-sign. It has round, happy looking headlights and a sharp, boxy rear end. I named it Elizabeth. I say goodnight to it.

HOT WHEELSBeauty is in the eye of the driver

BY JEFF KNOESPEL

Above: Mini cooper S. Below: Porsche 911

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OPINION

FISHING IN A TOXIC SEAThe perils of finding love online

BY SAKSHAM RAI

“Among other invasive questions I answered, one

stood out for me: Will you let your child believe that Santa

is real?”

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CULTURE + SOCIETY CULTURE + SOCIETY

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WHEN O.J. SIMPSON was charged with murder in 1994, Time published a dramatized cover pho-to of his mugshot, darkening his skin and increas-ing the shadows around his face. This photo-il-lustration fell under harsh scrutiny as journalists pressed that the manipulated photo portrayed Simpson as sinister and had racist undertones.

Throughout history, photographers have al-tered photos to convey a stronger message to their audience. In the case of Time, the editor de-fended the manipulation, saying that it made the photo an “icon of tragedy.”

While photo manipulation is not a new trend, the release of Adobe Photoshop in 1988 evolved the standards and ethics around it, and among the news community.

Photo altering before PhotoshopFilm photography was commonly manipulated , says Mike Zerby, former photojournalist at the Minneapolis Star Tribune and current teaching specialist at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Zerby says that there were no printed

standards about photo altering before Photo-shop came along.

When shooting hockey photographs in the 1940’s and 50’s, Zerby says that photographers would occasionally burn a negative of the puck in the darkroom over the original photograph to simulate the scene, as the slow cameras often missed the puck.

“It’s kind of a gray area,” Zerby says. “The inten-tion was to tell the story more completely, but the fact is the puck wasn’t there.”

After Photoshop When Photoshop was first released, Zerby says that editors were against the program and “would not allow it in the building.” Now, Photoshop is widely used across news organizations. While Photoshop can easily be used to manipulate pho-tographs, Zerby also says it is a necessary tool.

“The point of it is to bring the ultimate image back to what you experienced and saw,” Zerby says. “But you don’t use it to alter content.”

Zerby feels that with the widespread usage

of Photoshop there have been “real issues with credibility” in photography.

“People routinely assume that [photographs are] photoshopped,” says Zerby. “As soon as people see that, all of photography is diminished: in its value, in its authenticity, in its power.”

Zerby says that with the shift into digital pho-tography, photo altering is more readily iden-tified and that a number of people have been fired as a result.

In 2003, the Los Angeles Times fired staff pho-tographer Brian Walski over a photo composite he created depicting a false scene in the Iraq War.

“Too many pictures in the Iraq War were pur-posely altered,” says Zerby. “But the whole idea is to tell the truth with your camera. It’s that simple.

Photo manipulation todayIn today’s society, Zerby says that “virtually ev-ery publication in the country has a printed pro-gram” concerning photo manipulation.

“Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images’ content and context,”

reads the National Press Photographers Associa-tion (NPAA) Code of Ethics. “Do not manipulate images…in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.”

While the Associated Press references the NPAA standards, they further elaborate in their code of ethics by defining which specific Photo-shop tools can be used to enhance photographs. The code states that photographers are allowed to crop, dodge and burn, and use normal toning and color adjustments, but states that photog-raphers cannot alter the content.

While newspaper photographs have standards on maintaining accuracy, magazines do not neces-sarily fall under the same standards. “Magazines are typically sold on a newsstand, so it has to be

attractive and provocative,” says Zerby. Janet McLaughlin, senior art director of Minne-

sota Bride Magazine, says that photo retouching is common. To create the “dreamy look” the maga-zine portrays, McLaughlin says that the blemishes and tan-lines are usually erased and that they oc-casionally “nip-in waists and arms.”

“We’re an aspirational magazine,” Mc-Laughlin says. “We have no problem altering photos in our fashion shoots to make the model look gorgeous.”

While Minnesota Bride’s photographs are altered, McLaughlin says the magazine is con-scious about the amount of Photoshop they use. “We don’t want the model to look plastic or fake, so we try not to go too far.”

PHOTO MANIPULATION THROUGHOUT HISTORY

1860: A famous portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was in reality a fake representation. The portrait combined the head of Lincoln and the body of southern politician John Calhoun.

1861-1865: A photo of General Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War shows him on a horse in front of his troops. In reality, the photo was a composite of three separate images.

1930s: Soviet ruler Josef Stalin often airbrushed his enemies out of his photographs.

1982: National Geographic squished a photograph of the Giza pyramids on the front cover so that the horizontal photo would fit onto the vertical cover, which falsely represented the placement of the pyramids.

1994: The cover of Time featured a photograph of O.J. Simpson that had been digitally altered to make his skin look dramatically darker.

2003: Los Angeles Times photogra-pher Brian Walski combined two photographs of the Iraq War to make the composition more dra-matic. Walski was later fired after the manipulation was revealed.

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ALTERING REALITY: HOW FAR IS TOO FAR? Photoshop’s impact on image ethics in the news

BY ICHIGO TAKIKAWA

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CHILDREN ARE TAUGHT the meaning of equal-ity when they are very young. They are taught that every student in the classroom is an equal, regard-less of race or background. However, despite no-ble intentions, there is an often overlooked cost to teaching this version of equality.

College applications often put people of color, who usually have lower incomes, at a disadvan-tage. Today several prestigious schools, including University of California, Berkeley and University of Michigan, have adopted a “colorblind” educa-tional policy, which takes no racial data into ac-count during admissions.

While the passing of these policies may be well-intentioned, the net effect is that people of color are stripped of their racial identities, and celebrated differences are in effect thrown out the window. Today, ten states currently uphold the ban on the use of affirmative action, which prevents preferential or discriminatory treat-ment toward any individual or group based on race, in the educational system.

In the admission process “affirmative action traditionally was meant to redress inequality both by race and economics,” says Duane Rohovit B.A.J.D., a student advisor and counselor at the

International Student and Scholar Services at the University of Minnesota.

Rohovit emphasizes that the colorblind ap-proach limits educational opportunities at high-er-quality, more prestigious universities, “since economics almost always impact minorities more than white folks.”

A double–edged swordOne could argue that blatantly supporting race as a factor in the admissions process can go against the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees

equal rights to people of all races. But it can also be argued that the act of treating all people as equal — without taking into consideration variations in economic and social factors—is discriminatory in itself.

Many education experts, in fact, argue just that. “Some say that standardized tests and admissions are culturally biased, and there-fore controversial,” says Rohovit. He says that admissions are often tailored to the larger de-mographic of the community—typically white people—making it harder for people of color to succeed.

Colorblind admissions can be just as problem-atic. “It does a lot of inherent harm, and eras-es a dialogue” says Teodoro Crespo-Carrión, a Violin Performance and Anthropology double major at University of Minnesota originally from Ecuador. He says that Western culture values a

narrative in which all are free to pursue what they choose, and if they fail it is a reflection of their efforts.

Robbed of identityAccording to the U.S. Department of Education, white people are 78 percent more likely to be admitted to a university than an equally-quali-fied person of color. The student retention rate shows similar disparity, with 71 percent of white students continuing onto their second year com-pared to 29 percent of students of color.

Data and statistics on education accessibili-ty among various racial groups show that peo-ple of color are up against a system developed around groups that hold privilege. In addition to this problem, colorblindness can rob an applicant of her identity, trivialize her and other people of color’s experiences.

“Much of Native history has been taken away and the impact of violence and separation on our families has meant that passing, death and silence have been common,” says Susan Raffo, a writer of Native American descent who is a nonprofit consultant and former executive direc-tor of Pfund Foundation—a LGBT social justice non-profit organization.

Institutionalized racism and discrimination works by making the oppressed believe that they are ac-tually benefitting in this flawed system, and what they wake up to everyday is what they deserve. Privilege means having the liberty to not have to think of the consequences of one’s actions, regard-less of—in the case of colorblind admissions pro-cesses—how well-intentioned they may be.

“Whatever information we can find has to be shared as a way of rewriting the details of these stories,” says Raffo.

CULTURE + SOCIETY CULTURE + SOCIETY

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COLOR LESSIs colorblindness a problem in universities?

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SARAH MILLER* REMEMBERS pinning pictures of skinny models and quotes about staying thin to her Pinterest board in order to motivate herself. Looking back, she didn’t realize that she was de-stroying herself through a hashtag: #Thinspo.

“There was this one quote that drove me crazy: ‘Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,’” says Mill-er, a University of Minnesota senior. “Looking back on it, that’s not inspiration at all. That’s a problem.”

The hashtag #Thinspo has become a way for young women and men with eating disorders to provide “inspiration” or “thinspiration” for their unhealthy lifestyles and diseases.

A search of the hashtag on Tumblr or Twitter will produce a frightening stream of unhealthy look-ing women, with specific body features like “thigh gaps,” visible collar bones, or “bikini bridges” as sources of inspiration. It is difficult to not feel in-

tense sadness for any young women who feels the need to look this way.

In 2012, online photo community Instagram banned the hashtag from its social network. Today, a search of the hashtag will produce no results.

“Socio-cultural influences—which include so-cial media—are certainly a factor for women with eating disorders, especially adolescents,” says Wendy Blackshaw, Marketing Director for The Emily Program. “Our kids are looking at images of ‘perfect bodies’ which are actually photoshopped, but they don’t realize that. They see a photo of someone—who might even be, based on his or her BMI, diagnosable as having an eating disor-der—and think that is the ideal to strive for.”

A recent Ohio University study found that in-creased time spent on Facebook correlated with negative body image among college-aged women.

THE RISE AND FALL OF BODY IMAGE HASHTAGS

BY JANE CAMPBELL

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CULTURE + SOCIETY

EVERY DAY WE WAKE UP and face the same decision : What am I going to wear today? Getting dressed for the day is more than just putting on clothes—an outfit can make us feel ready to tack-le our day, succeed at work and give off the right impression. But often we find ourselves judging the clothing choices of our peers. We ask, “Why are you so dressed up?” “Did you wake up late today?” or “Isn’t that uncomfortable?” without understanding why someone made those choices for his or her day. Much of the time, there are ulterior motives under each exterior layer.

Name: CharlyIntentions: I try to wear blue every day, or at least some element of blue. I like the texture of these shorts, I suppose. And I like that these aren’t just normal short sleeves, they’re fun sleeves. Implications: I like this yellow beanie because this is my aura color. I keep on running into this color everywhere, so I have a connection to it, and I wear it when my day is going well.The bean-ie is another inside story where I have this group of friends called the beanie trio, and we all wear these beanies and it kind of connects us.Factors: How much I can stand out, I love standing out. I don’t like being vanilla, so I just

want to pop out and let everyone know that I’m an individual, I guess.

Name: Clara Intentions: Well I wanted to have something bright and fun because it’s sunny, but I felt inap-propriate wearing a sunflower dress, so I added something a little dark to it. Implications: It’s comfortable and I’m about to go work in the art department, so it’s kind of funky there.Factors: Probably texture, color, and where I’m going. I like to be semi-professional for class and more fun if I’m hanging out with friends.

Name: Jessica Intentions: To be honest, it was warm out so I wanted to wear a dress because we have only a few days left of good weather. And then I just got new boots, so I kind of wanted something to go with them.Implications: I have a test today, so I do the “dress for success” type of thing. So I had a math test this morning and a chem test in an hour, so I kind of wanted to dress well and hopefully I’ll do well on the test.Factors: The weather, and then kind of how I

want to look on a certain day. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have classes on West Bank, so I usu-ally dress a little more artsy, and then the rest of the week I’m more casual, but it just kind of depends on how early my classes are and how nice I want to look at 8 a.m.

Name: Blake Intentions: I’m wearing what I’m wearing be-cause I’m Greek and I’m a sweetheart for a so-rority. Formal attire required, so this was not my ‘around town’ attire for the day. It was something more casual, comfortable.Implications: I think it implies that I mean business and I try to present myself in a positive manner. I think that being dressed-up implies that it’s University-related, generally speaking.Factors: When I’m getting dressed in the morning, my sister is good with the fashion stuff and the color coordination and whatnot, so I kind of just have a couple key things that I stick to. I know not to wear different tints of the same col-or. I’ve gotten chewed out about that one before. I put on a belt every day, just because I’m to that age now a belt is an important thing to wear. I still take myself seriously, but I can relax a little bit. I got Nike’s on my feet, you know?

WHY ARE YOU WEARING THAT?A look into the way we dress

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Overall, the study found that the environment of social media comparison could trigger feel-ings of body shame due to unrealistic standards of body image.

“Social media is just a reflection of culture at large and culture tends to portray a very specific, narrow ideal of beauty,” says Shayla Thiel-Stern, Associate Professor at University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication whose scholarly work has explored coverage of young women in popular and social media.

Maddy Kluesner, a 2013 University of Minnesota grad-uate, says she feels the body compari-son creep onto her news feed in an al-most subconscious manner.

“Sometimes I feel really insecure and I want to get in shape so I start comparing myself, but most of the time I try to stay body-positive,” says Kluesner. “I don’t compare myself to my friends, but I think when it comes to films and movies that’s where I start to feel self-conscious.”

In one sentiment, Kluesner sums up her feelings about body comparison: “I don’t ever really talk about it, but I think I definitely internalize it a lot.”

Another body image hashtag trend to arise in recent years is “#Fitspo” or “Fitspiration.” As opposed to “Thinspiration,” this hashtag seeks to promote a “healthy” lifestyle of exercise and eating right, but its vehicle of inspiration is still primarily focused on the female body image.

“I’m going to admit, I wish my arms and abs were more like some of those girls,” says Miller in regards to using #Fitspo. “It can be positive if one uses it to have motivation to work out, but it can be negative if one uses it to completely change their diet and exercise plan if they are already healthy and fit.”

Kluesner said she felt slightly betrayed by #Fitspo. Expecting to feel excitement and motivation to get in shape, she instead felt more negativity than posi-tivity towards her self-image.

“#Fitspo is the same exact thing as #Thinspo. They post pictures of ridiculously skinny women

wearing spandex shorts and sports bras to work out,” she says. “It made me feel so insecure and I felt disgusting anytime I worked out. Instead of feeling an endorphin rush, I just criticized myself.”

According to the National Association of An-orexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 91 percent of women surveyed on a college cam-pus attempted to control their weight through dieting, and 25 percent engage in bingeing and purging as a weight management technique.

During college, the pressures for women to look perfect mount as they encounter the need to excel academically while trying to maintain control over the rest of their life.

Miller is a sociol-ogy of law, crimi-nology and devi-ance major who is looking to law school as the next step after college. She says the de-mands from school and her social life

hit a point of unbearable pressure during her third year of college.

“I knew I had a problem when I felt the need to skip meals and was okay with habits that could be harmful,” she says. “During the second se-mester of my junior year, I was training like crazy for my half marathon and ‘watching what I ate’ turned into an obsession. I was running 15 to 20 miles per week and I’d weigh myself constantly.”

Miller isn’t alone in feeling the need to con-stantly scrutinize her body image. In a survey of 185 female college students from the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 58 percent felt pressure to be a cer-tain weight, and of the 83 percent that dieted for weight loss, 44 percent were of normal weight.

Entering the world of Thinspo on Tumblr is like sinking down a dark hole of unhealthy, shocking photos, mostly of emaciated stomachs and legs whittled down to the bone.

“We see these websites as being incredibly harmful for anyone, much less someone suffering from an eating disorder,” says Blackshaw. “Besides treating our clients and helping them to recover, we educate them that these sites are harmful

OUR KIDS ARE LOOKING AT IMAGES OF ‘PERFECT BODIES,’ WHICH ARE ACTUALLY PHOTOSHOPPED. BUT THEY DON’T REALIZE THAT.

91%

91% of college women attempt to control their weight through dieting

58%

58% of college women feel pressure to be a certain weight

25%

25% of college women engage in bingeing and purging as a weight loss technique

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and often full of false images. Most of the time, the weight isn’t the main problem, it is the under-lying emotional and psychological issues.”

Lindsey Howard, a researcher with the Uni-versity of Minnesota’s Eating Disorders Research Program, recently presented a literature review of “The Effects of Maladaptive Social Media Use on Eating Disorder Symptomatology”.

Through her research, Howard found that in-dividuals who sought negative feedback and re-ceived a high number of comments on posts on Facebook were more likely to report disordered eating attitudes four weeks later.

She also discovered that the tendency to engage in comparisons through social media tends to increase

the likelihood of disordered eating symptoms.Overall, Howard found that women who

have high thin-ideal internalization or appear-ance based self-worth will use social media to reassure and validate themselves regarding their physical and social attractiveness.

Thiel-Stern agrees that female body image on-line tends to promote a sort of “body shame” among young women.

“Girls are often portrayed as posting photos of themselves that are too sexy,” she says. “There is a lot of judging and shaming in that respect.”

The social media habits and behaviors of 21-year-old Miller fit right in with Howard’s re-search findings, too.

“I do compare myself to others on social media. I was always concerned with how I looked, and seeing people who were way prettier than me can be very negative and lead to negative behaviors,” she says. “I have some friends who are taller and skinnier than I am, or who are extremely in shape. I get a little jealous of that and feel the need to improve how I look.”

It is clear that for a young woman using social media, the pressure to look a certain way is in-surmountable. Sometimes the best way to shut out the noise is to confront ourselves, and our obsession with image.

*Name has been changed to protect privacy

THERE WAS THIS ONE QUOTE THAT DROVE ME CRAZY:‘NOTHING TASTES AS GOOD AS SKINNY FEELS.’

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N SHow going blind shaped one woman’s self-image

BY GINA VAN THOMME

Not by Sight

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THE LEAVES OUTSIDE her classroom burn am-ber and there’s a chill in the October breeze, but for Betsy Shallbetter, it’s already snowing.

The blizzard in Shallbetter’s vision hasn’t let up since a surgery to remove a tumor left her blind at 17. She was months away from high school graduation when she walked into surgery, un-aware of the effect it would have on her 20/20 vision. She returned to her south Minneapolis home unable to see in her right eye and partially blind in her left. And while she’d just gotten her driver’s license, she now used a white cane to get places. She could make out movement, but was unable to see the faces and expressions of her friends and family. She used to love reading, but her favorite books were printed in text hundreds

of times too small to read. Everything was dark and fuzzy. Grass looked orange, hair green. And the snow wouldn’t stop.

Most of all, Shallbetter was left without the ability to see herself, much less the world around her. Suddenly Shallbetter was one of the near-ly 10 million Americans who are blind or visu-ally impaired and need to assess their image by something other than physical appearance.

Shallbetter is now 51 and teaches high school students the same age she was when she lost her vision. As a teacher of history and family and con-sumer science at the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind in Faribault, Minnesota, Shallbetter’s students follow a typical high school curriculum, but they also study how to be successful in ev-

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eryday situations including using a stove, balanc-ing a checkbook, and applying makeup. Students at the academy also work on developing strong, confident self-images. No small challenge when the stresses of high school are aided by the fact that many students don’t know what they look like or even what their surroundings appear to be. Thankfully, they are not alone in this journey. Shallbetter has been there herself.

As her white cane guided her down her high school hallway, all Shallbetter could imagine was a sign above her head flashing ‘BLIND’ for all of her classmates and teachers to see. It was Shall-better’s first day back at school following her surgery. It would also be her last. Guided by her sister and her white cane, Shallbetter’s face was free of makeup and she had no idea how she looked, but she knew exactly how she felt and that was no longer good enough; half of a per-son. “My closest friends didn’t even let me know they were in the room. They didn’t know what to say,” Betsy says. “My personal image was like zip—nothing there at all—I was at the bottom of the bottom, totally rejected by people I thought were my friends.”

Self-esteem and image issues are prominent between both the sighted and blind communities, although many issues arise specific to blindness. To address these specifics, Illinois-based The Had-

ley School of the Blind holds a course called Self Esteem and Adjusting with Blindness. Jennifer Ot-towitz, one of the course’s instructors, helps blind students cope with the very issues that Shallbetter struggled with on her return to high school. “Lots of folks have trouble recognizing themselves as a person. It’s a character that you have, but it does not define who you are,” Ottowitz says.

Ottowitz’s class is structured as a series of stag-es that helps students recognize the person they are and that the core values they hold now are the same as they were before they were blinded. “[People] can think a lack of vision can be a lack of intelligence, or that a person who has limit-ed vision is unsafe or needs to be taken care of,” Ottowitz says. “One of the things I tell students

is that they’re more than just eyeballs with feet. We’re just people and we can’t see so well.”

This is a realization that doesn’t come instantly. Every person adjusts at different rates, and it took Shallbetter two years before she left what she described as “the middle of Angry Land.” After finishing high school at home, Shallbetter began attending Normandale College in Bloomington, Minnesota. At first, she compared walking down the hallway with her cane to Moses parting the Red Sea, but after several months her classmates began warming up to her. Then, on a 12-credit course in Europe, Shallbetter’s classmates begin guiding her to landmarks and helping her feel them without her asking. This experience led Shallbetter to realize that she had to take control and communicate. It was three weeks into the trip that she realized that she really wanted to touch and experience Europe. “I was rejecting my own blindness and not coping,” Shallbetter recalls, remembering how easy it was for her to slip back into thinking “Why me?”

The oven has been turned off and the ingredi-ents put away. The four students in Shallbetter’s FACS class gather around the table with the pizza and cake they made. The students come from diverse backgrounds: among the four, two are completely blind and one is spending the year studying abroad from Russia. Many of the stu-dents commute from their homes around the state to board at school during the week. On top of the busy noise of the classroom, Shallbetter talks to her students about their image. “There are more people that see the white cane before they see you,” Shallbetter tells her students. “It can mess with self-image and make you think ‘I’m different.’ We want to be equal.”

The noise barely lets up as she talks, a point that only supports Shallbetter’s observation that teenagers are teenagers, no matter the situation they’re in. Shallbetter is one of only three blind staff members at MSAB and fights hard for her students. Her teaching reflects her own motto: “You can be independent. You have to want to be, but you can.” Through her teaching she helps students find independence and value through performing tasks that might have once seemed impossible. “Every one of those kids, they can chop, they can cut, they can slice. They can cut their own damn steak.”

It’s the weekend and Shallbetter is curled into

a recliner in her living room. Light streams in through a stained glass window and the walls are covered with paintings done by friends and fami-ly. The woodsy smell of cigar smoke fills the room as Shallbetter’s husband, Paul, talks about his own blindness. “Apart from my birth, my salvation and my beautiful wife, my blindness has been the greatest gift from God I’ve ever received,” Paul says. “The day I lost my eyesight is the day I start-ed to see. I truly listen, I truly smell, I truly touch.”

Still, physical appearances can be harder to maintain when you’re blind. Shallbetter rarely wears makeup because she has a hard time ap-plying it evenly, which leads to comments. For her, it’s not worth the hassle. But she does ask friends and family members if she looks alright. She reads Lady’s Home Journal in braille to gather fashion tips, although some descriptions—includ-ing an article pronouncing “lettuce as the new color of the year”—can be confusing.

The lack of fashion information inspired Stephanae McCoy to create Bold Blind Beauty, a blog that provides the blind and visually impaired with fashion and beauty tips. After McCoy was pronounced legally blind in 2009, she turned her anger and struggles into inspiration. “We live in

a sighted world,” McCoy says. “To some degree, physical appearance is important.”

Her blog, which users can listen to or read, includes more product details and descriptions than a shopping site catered to the sighted. And though her site helps the blind with their physical appearance, McCoy’s mission is much more than skin deep. “If there’s a way to help them feel better about themselves, then that will

help them feel more secure and beautiful,” she says. “Self-confidence is the most important and when that comes through, you’re beautiful.”

Ottowitz, the teacher of Self Esteem and Ad-justing with Blindness, agrees with the impor-tance of physical appearance to the blind, but notes that self-image relies on other character-istics. “Self image is probably based on internal characteristics—instead of facial features, cloth-

ing, or hairstyle. Self-image is more personali-ty related,” she says. “It’s not saying that blind people don’t care about their image, but they focus more on the internal vision of self-image and self-concept.”

Although Shallbetter is well adjusted, happi-ly married and in the job she’s always wanted, she’s not immune to the frustrations of blind-ness. She wishes she could pick up a piece of print and read it without using her computer to blow it up 500 percent. She wishes that she were seen as capable, especially among the half of her family that still sees her blindness before they see her. She wishes for a magic cure to take away the snow in her vision. She wishes the vi-sion in her left eye wouldn’t eventually be lost.

Shallbetter has spent years being seen as a blind person instead of Betsy. While her adjustment has gotten easier since her return to high school and her college trip to Europe, she still faces the stereotypes of blindness while remembering her worth and self-image. “I am more than a white cane,” she says.

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ABOVE: Shallbetter reads through the use of her fingers. LEFT: Shallbetter uses a white cane to guide her way as she takes a stroll.

There are more people who see the white cane before they see you.

Self-confidence is the most important, and when that comes

through, you’re beautiful.

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FACE SHOPPINGBehind South Korea’s plastic surgery boom

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The members of Korean pop band Girls Generation are known for all having plastic surgery.

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AFTER NAOMI LEE was accepted into a college, her mom suggested she get a nose job.

During her high school years in Korea, she had to wear glasses. “They didn’t really fit on my nose so I wore them on my cheekbone,” Lee says. It took only a week to make the decision. Her cousin and some of her friends from high school got plastic surgery, so she asked them about the process and the cost.

“My nose has been my insecurity for a long time, probably since middle school. You know how teenagers like to take selfies… I realized my nose was small and low compared to other people.”

On the day of the surgery, Lee said she was “fine” except for seeing her face all swollen and bruised. After three weeks, she was satisfied with the results. People told her it takes three surgeries to see real results, but Lee says she does not want to get it again.

“I like it as it is,” she says. “I spent two thousand dollars to get the surgery, so maybe it would be good that people can see the before and after dif-ference right away. But, I like how natural it looks.”

So-called Chinese ‘medical’ tourists come

all the way to Seoul to have their eyelids dou-ble-lined, noses tweaked, and chins sharpened. Walking through the glamorous Gangnam Dis-trict, it’s common to find people taking photos of themselves covered in bandages in front of one of the hundreds of famous ‘Barbie factories’.

People all over the world have become ob-sessed with altering their body with surgery, but Korea is gaining a reputation as a plastic surgery hub, a place where doctors are highly skilled and the costs are affordable.

Mike Doyle, a recent college graduate from De-Paul University, was shocked by the uniformity of appearance when he went to Korea to teach English.

“Doll-like Korean girls were everywhere in Gangnam,” says Doyle.

According to a report issued by the Interna-tional Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (IACS) in 2010, one in five Korean women in Seoul had gone through plastic surgeries.

But this trend isn’t exclusive to girls. Nearly half of the teenage boys in Seoul think they could go under the knife to look better, a sign of the in-creasingly liberal attitude toward a once-tabooed

subject. According to the survey by the Seoul Metropolitan government, only 16.9 percent of boys answered that they wouldn’t be interested in having plastic surgery.

The social acceptance of plastic surgery in-creased significantly in recent years. In a poll by a Korean employment website, 73.5 percent of job seekers reported they positively considered getting plastic surgery, or had some done already.

The interesting twist lies in the fact that many still show hostility to the so-called Barbies who are sometimes called Sung-goe, or plastic surgery monster. Nearly three quarters of people in the survey agreed that they were averse to the idea of plastic surgery while they considered getting one.

Reflecting the stigma against plastic surgery,

‘natural’ is a new trend in the industry. Some clinics offer after-care retouching to remove lines after eyelid surgery, and many others have asso-ciations with dermatology clinics.

“It’s like they want you to be skinny and pretty, but they don’t want you to look ‘artificial,’” says Lindsay Jeon, former president of the University of Minnesota’s Korean Student Association. Nat-ural plastic surgery is booming and I don’t even know how it is possible.”

In the job market, “lookism” is prevailing. Jeon says that in the process of applying for Ameri-can accounting firms in the past few years, not a single company asked for her photo with her resume. “It is strange that Korean companies re-quire applicants to put their photos in the resume

regardless of what kind of job they are applying for. Look really is an important criteria that could influence their decision on if you’re in or out.”

Korean debate club Productive Surplus agreed that there is an implicit consensus in the society to deem physical appearance as a natural merit, or even a talent.

“Some people are born with an outstanding brain, good linguistic ability or a musical talent,” says Jangwon Kim, an economy major. “Appear-ance is just like one of those. It is important to accept how you look. Then, find what your talent is and focus on what you do have.”

“Appearance is like a weapon in the job market. A weapon that everyone must have to go to a war. We have to own the ‘right’ look in Korea,” Jeon says.

The more obsessed Koreans are with a narrow idea of beauty, the more disturbing the Barbies are to them. Looking at the artificial beauty, members of Korean debate club admitted the insecurity on appearance, the self-doubt, and the social pressure to live up to the narrow standard become real.

“I am okay with eye and nose surgery, but I found complete transformation quite disturbing. I know I have double standard on this,” Julie Lee, a biology major, says.

Let Me In (Let 美人) is a Korean plastic surgery television program that draws huge audiences in Korea. The title is a Chinese and English pun from the characters for beautiful person (美人). This reality makeover style show premiered on De-cember 2, 2011 and became one of the most controversial shows ever produced in Korea.

The plot for every episode is the same: among three candidates who suffered due to their physical appearance, a team of medical experts chooses one for a complete head-to-toe trans-formation. With medical treatments and a little help from stylists, she can eventually ‘let herself in’ to the society and her life changes instantly and live happily ever after.

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There is another new show titled Back to My Face, which gives plastic surgery addicts an op-portunity to, ironically, get plastic surgery one last time to restore their natural beauty. These shows mirror the beauty-infatuated society while solid-ifying the notion that our appearance defines us.

Viewers can become more uncomfortable and critical of striving to fit other’s beauty standards. At the same time, the heartbreaking stories por-trayed on plastic surgery programs brings up an important ethical question regarding the nega-tive stigma on plastic surgery.

“Who’s to say they should not own free reign of their body?” Christina Schmid, assistant pro-fessor in the art department, says.

Dream Medical Group, a Seoul-based plastic surgery clinic, reported 94.5 percent of Korean job seekers experience discrimination in their job application process due to appearance.

“Who gets to decide what is a bad enough men-tal state?” asked Schmid. If those Korean youths live in a context where they feel the pressure to look certain way so vehemently, it hinders the ability to live a happy life. Who are we to say it’s wrong?”

Schmid added that, in her opinion, it is still a shame that a culture would place such a detri-mental emphasis on appearance. From a feminist angle, it would be ideal to literally take the idea that everyone is beautiful rather than trying to modify it. However, she says, the sincerity of the idealism is questioned.

Essentially putting on makeup, wearing acces-sories, choosing the right outfit for today and constantly caring about weight are all acts of not accepting the idea of ‘everyone is beautiful as is.’

So, where do we draw the line? It corners people into the discussion—is the substitution of happiness for health an appropriate goal for cosmetic enhancement?

Does cosmetic surgery make people happy? What is the right take on the issue of body modifi-cation? Is cosmetic surgery simply a business service provided to those who desire it, are able to pay for it and are willing to accept the risks involved?

Korean artist Ji Yeo focuses her work on the theme of the ethics of plastic surgery in Korea. Her recent series of work, Beauty Recovery Room,

used the wounded faces and bodies of women who have recently undergone plastic surgery to show what the society is demanding.

In her artist statement, she wrote that “going under the knife, enduring bruises, scars and be-ing under general anesthetic several times are no longer considered risky or extravagant.”

The women in the photographs, which were taken directly after their procedures, have gone through plastic surgery in several parts of their bodies and have plans to have additional work done.

“It is a culture where men are judged on their

financial balance sheet and women by their beauty. The male-dominated media endlessly reinforces its model of the ideal woman,” Yeo writes. “As a result of these cultural forces Korea has become a beauty-oriented society where people are judged more for their appearance than their character.”

The obsession to reach impossible beauty stan-dards is not just Gangnam style, it is worldwide and ubiquitous. There’s a growing trend of skill-fully marketed, yet unattainable beauty ideals, and nobody is free from this image obsession.

Ji Yeo’s Beauty Recovery RoomAbove: Ji Yeo’s Draw on Me. Below: Before and after photos of Let Me In.

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Walking through the glamorous Gangnam

District, it’s common to find people taking photos of themselves covered in bandages in front of one

of the hundreds of famous ‘Barbie factories’.

“It is a culture where men are judged on their financial balance sheet and

women by their beauty.”

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A backstage look at gender performance

BY JUAN PABLO RAMIREZ

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THE GENTLEMAN KING

IT WAS A CHILLY AND DARK Thursday night in Uptown Minneapolis, but the basement of Bryant Lake Bowl was abuzz with excitement. Thirteen men and women sat at brightly lit van-ity mirrors, putting on lipstick and securing false eyelashes in preparation for Dykes Do Drag, a celebration of all genders and orientations held at Bryant Lake Bowl five times a year.

Heather Spear—known on stage as The Gentleman King—served as the emcee for the night, armed with a charismatic smile, dapper suit and gray fedora. The show brings together performers dressed in everything from slinky cocktail dresses to nurses uniforms to sing and dance in a unique blend of gender performance, personal expression and cabaret.

Before coming to see a Dykes Do Drag show, it’s easy to have preconceptions about these per-formers. Dolled up with bright makeup and gaudy costumes, their image is unlike anyone you’d see in everyday life. But each artist has her own story to tell through the character she brings to life every time she steps on stage and the bonds made with her fellow performers are undeniable. “They are all a great group of people,” Spear says. “They are like my family.”

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When Everything ChangedMY FATHER AFTER HIS STROKEBY ALI LACEY

MY FATHER PULLS ON his leg brace, tightens the Velcro straps on his shoes and limps to the bedroom door, his right arm dangling at his side. He examines his face, which droops slightly to one side; what he sees in the mirror has changed.

On April 30th, 2013, he was a well-respected business owner, a friend to all, the brother of a city councilman, and the proud owner of a na-tionally renowned hunting dog. On the morning of May 1st, he was strapped to a hospital bed as his friends and family cried above him, eyeing his drooped face and the fluids draining into his near-lifeless body. His all-American image had disappeared overnight.

He knew it was coming, as strokes run in the family. At only 56-years-old, people now look at him with pity, unsure of how to communicate with him after the brain trauma took away his speech and the ability to move most of the right side of his body. His spirit hasn’t changed, but he is physically an entirely different person.

Traumatic brain injuries, loss of limbs and ter-minal illnesses can forever change a person’s image. These sudden moments of impact hit swiftly, leaving victims and families disoriented with new realities. Strokes are the leading cause of serious long-term disability, affecting 795,000 people in the United States every year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion. Annually, strokes take more than 140,000 lives, making them the third leading cause of death. One fourth of these happen to people under the age of 65, like my dad. Despite how common strokes are, those victimized are still treated drastically different by outsiders, even by those closest to them.

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My dad was known for being able to strike up a conversation with anyone, joke with waiters and tap old acquaintances on the shoulder to talk with them about the one time they did business togeth-er years ago. He made others feel valued, and he found his worth through these interactions.

For years, my mom and I would sit at home in

the evening, unsure of where he was and why he was so late for dinner. We wouldn’t know un-til the weeks following his stroke, when friends and strangers alike visited the hospital and told us about the times he had helped them plow their driveways, cut firewood for an elderly neighbor, or how he left money in the cars of his employ-ees who couldn’t afford to pay child support that month. Illness, however, shows that you can be loved widely, but deeply by only a few.

After a few weeks, these friends stopped visit-ing him at rehab, which is what people said would

happen after the shock wore off. Only some would stick around through the uphill battle, for few friendships can transcend such a dramatic change.

In the months following his stroke, those same friends would avoid eye contact with him at the local market. They wouldn’t talk to us unless space and time gave them no way out. They no longer saw my dad as the “fun and caring man,” but rather as “the guy who had a stroke.” It’s uncomfortable to attempt to talk with someone you once knew well, but who now appears to be missing.

The stroke showed me a side of my dad I had never seen before. He was now dependent and hopeless. Having once found fulfillment in work, he began to take home disability checks. In my mind, I knew he was still the same person, but even my own image of him was changing.

It happened slowly, but I began to see him as a man who has had two images in his lifetime: one independent and strong, the other sweet, nur-turing, and full of compassion. My view of him changed when I became a caretaker for the one who was supposed to take care of me. It hap-pened when I helped him study for a driving test just four years after he helped me pass mine. I have come to see that it isn’t a bad thing.

Sometimes when I think about my father, I think of the independent man who never needed any-thing from anyone; the one who was a rock for so

many. Usually, however, I think of my sweet, loving dad, the one who emerged after May 1st, 2013.

The months following his stroke were dis-heartening, and there are still moments when discouragement lurks. When he struggles to communicate with us and gets frustrated that he can’t get the words out, I can see it. When he looks at the path ahead of him and the distance seems so much farther than it used to be, I can see it. There are, however, moments of intense happiness: when he is able to string together a full sentence or when he feels strong enough to walk his dog down the street. The smallest step walked or a new word spoken sends us into celebration.

It has been almost two years since that broken blood vessel drained the life from his right side and speech centers; two years since his image was forever altered. As I pull into the driveway at my parents’ house, I watch my father walk to meet me at the car. Before, he would help me with my bags, swing his arm around me and tell me all about how his dog did on their recent hunting adventure. Now, he smiles a crooked smile and limps toward me, using a cane for sup-port. In his limited speech, he communicates to me that he is glad to see me. Since the stroke, he has become appreciative of life. Now, in his broken words, he often says these words to me: “Lucky to be alive.”

MY VIEW OF HIM CHANGED WHEN I

BECAME A CARETAKER FOR THE ONE WHO WAS

SUPPOSED TO TAKE CARE OF ME.

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My father enjoying his favorite pastime, baseball.

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What inspires your art?MW: I like elements of pop art ‘cause it helps me have a deep connection with the heroes and pioneers I paint. My work is about waking people up—creating awareness—in a language that a common person understands. Aliens have always been super inspiring for me too.

How do people react when they see you doing street art?MW: I’m a strong believer in karma and dharma, so I believe you get what you give in this lifetime. I try to more or less respect private property, that is why I have been focusing more on murals for the past seven years. People love to see them; for most people it is great to see a big piece of art being created in front of their eyes. People always stop me to give me very special positive feedback on them.

What are some of the struggles street artists face when they are doing their job?MW: I think when you do illegal street art you are like in a jungle, anything can happen, even when you are painting under a bridge or in a train

yard. Those are very unsafe places. It is also very common for street artists to want to get to really high up places. Many artists have lost their lives under this line of work.

Some people are closed minded about street art, but when they see the final piece they may change their opinion about it. Why do you think that is?MW: When I’m doing work for clients and they see me using spray paint, sometimes they can get a little weird about it, but when they see the end product it changes everything. I think when peo-ple see a spraycan they assume it could end up looking like crap.

What do you think is the difference between street art and vandalism?MW: Well a lot of street art is vandalism. The dif-ference is maybe the location the work is applied. Some neighborhoods like the Bronx in New York have that urban feeling and it’s more accepted. It even looks cool and represents the feeling of the city. I have seen great work been simply passed as crap because it was placed on the wrong surface.

THE ART OF VANDALISMThe dangerous career of a street artist

BY JUAN PABLO RAMIREZ

ARTS

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MANY STREET ARTISTS have said the biggest museum in the world is the street. However, many people think street artists just can’t get their art in a museum, so they put their work on the streets in protest. In reality, some of the most famous street artists like Mr. Brainwash and Banksy have sold their art for millions of dollars, while simultaneously making street art in some of the most remote corners of London, Paris and New York City.

Street artists are often portrayed as both van-dals and street artists, but there is a fine line be-tween those two terms. We talked with one of the most prolific street artists in the Twin Cities, Maze Wayz, and asked him a little more about how he has managed to create an image of a street artist and not a vandal.

Misael Ivan Lopez, known as Maze Wayz, is a 27-year-old Mexican-born, psychedelic street artist from the Twin Cities. He draws inspiration from the ’60s and ‘70s psychedelic love movement, as well as the ‘80s New York hip hop movement.

Promoting beauty and positive change, Lopez works with community-oriented projects like fund-raisers, park restoration and murals, and creative projects like photo shoots and canvas paintings.

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CREATING AND SHARING a visual represen-tation of yourself puts you in a vulnerable po-sition, yet self-portraits have been identifiable since the Early Renaissance in the 15th century. It is important to ask ourselves why people take the time to construct a self-portrait or post a selfie: does it spring from a primitive desire to be known and belong?

I sat down with two Minneapolis-based artists and scholars, Jordan Rosenow and Kelsey King, as well as Madison-based artist and scholar, Zachary Schwaller, to dissect what it is they think drives the act of creating a self-portrait.

Do you think there is a difference between a selfie and a self-portrait?JR: Yes, definitely. I think a selfie is a momentary visual display of oneself and a view of personal love. You know, when someone is taking a sel-fie they are thinking “I look good!” or “Look at where I am!” I think it stems from an inherent need to show others a self you are proud of, an image you want others to admire. A self-por-trait, on the other hand, is not done necessarily through a lens. It depicts the less seen aspects of the self such as emotions and it doesn’t have to depict reality, as it is more of a personal repre-sentation rather than a personal objectification.KK: Selfies are so quick and usually meant to reach a large group of friends; it is very technolo-gy based, whereas producing a self-portrait takes a lot longer and it allows you to contemplate yourself and build artistic skills.ZS: Well I guess in the most vain of reasonings, my self-portraits could really be taken of any other person sitting other than myself and still have the same meaning. You can’t really say that about a selfie. A selfie is to say look at me, where self-portrait—at least in how I use it—is to say look at this.

Kelsey King: Untitled Self-Portrait, 2013.

Zachary Schwaller: Your Boyfriend #32, 2013.Jordan Rosenow: Apart of Unstable Beings series, 2014.

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What drives you to make a self-portrait?JR: When I make a self-portrait it is about dis-covery and translations. I am trying to transform an idea or feeling into a visual form of any nature. I want others to take away from it whatever they want. Art is objective and it is about producing work that will resonate with people even if your idea gets a little lost in translation. If it makes the audience feel something, the artist has done their job. I think all self-portraits say “think about me.”KK: When I make self-portraits, it’s because I am trying to become a better painter or illustrator. I am trying to define and perfect my skills as an artist.ZS: I guess I think about how everything we see in images are viewed in reflection to ourselves and gets mixed up in our own sense of self, what we should do and what we want.

ARTS

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ARTS

LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT THISSeparating selfies from self-portraits

BY NICOLE TIERNEY

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BUSINESS + POLITICSBUSINESS + POLITICS

IMAGINE A POLITICAL campaign structured like reality singing competition The Voice. Candi-dates participate in debates and give speeches to voters who can’t see them, and therefore can’t be distracted by a candidate’s outdated hair-style, odd-colored suit or body type. Seems far-fetched, doesn’t it? Politics is an inherently visual game, one where the way a politician looks can draw as much criticism (if not more) than the issues they take on.

Hilary’s hair, Romney’s tan, Obama’s beige suit. These personal image choices can cause a stir, make the headlines and even determine wheth-er a candidate will receive the popular vote in a campaign. So that got us to thinking—if you could assemble the image of the perfect politi-cian, groomed head to toe to appeal to voters, what would that politician look like?

We spoke with Paul Goren, a University of Minnesota political science professor specializing in voter behavior and public opinion, and Sasha Westin, owner of Twin Cities-based image con-sulting firm Fabuliss, about the power of personal image, and just how much a candidate’s look can influence their popularity at the polls.

A Face for PoliticsOur ideal candidate would have the cards stacked in their favor by Mother Nature. “If men are tall, clean cut, symmetrical face, that plays better than shorter male candidates who maybe aren’t quite as handsome or physically attractive,” Goren says.

A female candidate looking to fare well at the polls would have “attractive, but not too attrac-tive” features, and a warm and friendly face op-posed to a cold and stern look, Goren adds.

Candidates who fit into cultural archetypes for appearance are often the ones who appeal

the most to voters, Goren said. Take, for exam-ple, the first ever televised presidential debate, between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960. The debate is often thought to have turned the tide in favor of the young, fit look-ing Kennedy, after viewers saw Nixon’s sweaty, haggard appearance.

Dress for SuccessMore than any other facet of personal image, the style and fit of the clothes someone wears can often make or break their chances at landing a leadership position in any field, Westin says.

“If you are wearing clothes that don’t fit well, people immediately start to question your credi-bility,” Westin says. “They start to question things like is this person up to date on topics, and up to date on news, all those things come into play.”

So a politician would need to ensure their wardrobe is full of current styles and body flat-tering fits, but there’s one more factor to take into consideration as we dress our imaginary dream candidate: color. While colors can elicit different emotions in people, Westin said she focuses more on the ways a color flatters the wearer when dressing a client. Certain hues can wash out or overpower a wearer, so finding the most complimentary shade is important.

“I want to make sure that when you’re wearing any color, no matter what it is, that we can see you and not just the color of whatever you’re wearing,” Westin says.

Westin also suggested adding a dash of dis-tinction to an outfit to make sure a candidate stands out, and doesn’t look too “generic.” But high profile politicians should be wary—just take it from President Obama, who gave a press con-ference in August wearing a taupe suit that set

social media ablaze for its less-than-authoritative vibe. But in the long run, a one-time wardrobe misstep isn’t likely to have a large impact on voter opinion, Goren said.

“If President Obama showed up in a Black Sabbath t-shirt, that would be one thing,” Goren says. “But candidates know they’ve got to look decent and presentable.”

Play the PartAccording to Goren, voters will often gravitate towards a candidate who has an interesting, relatable or inspirational backstory as part of their public persona. That’s why the “family oriented” card gets played so often, and can-didates who served in the military or rose up from rough beginnings are seen as more ap-pealing than career politicians.

Aside from strong family ties and a unique backstory, an ideal candidate would also have to present him or herself as competent, smart, a good leader and someone who is, at least in this part of the country, nice.

But assembling a strong personality to go along with a clean cut, well-tailored image will only get a candidate so far if any skeletons in their closet turn up during a race. There’s little that a sharp suit can do if the self-proclaimed “family man” is shown to have some improprieties in his past, or an advocate for law and order is shown to have issues with paying her taxes. Those with prior baggage, Goren said, try to keep it well hidden from public view during a campaign as to not dis-rupt their carefully put-together image.

“You often don’t see candidates who deviate too much from these ideal types,” Goren says. “Candidates who do often don’t get nominated in the first place.”

COOKIE-CUTTER CANDIDATEImage and politics

BY EMILY MONGAN

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BUSINESS + POLITICS

FACE VALUEThe unspoken qualifications for landing the job

BY KATE LERETTE

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IT’S HUMAN NATURE to judge one another, and it’s inevitable that these judgments will seep into the workplace. But are these speculative thoughts creating obstacles for employees and job seekers?

“People assume I’m lazy when they first see me because I’m a bigger girl,” says Fox Coenen, a dog daycare staff member. “I may be plus-sized, but I work circles around the ‘hot girls.’” This isn’t the first time Coenen’s appearance has set her back in the workplace. Once, she was told to wear makeup to appear more customer-friendly. This is nothing new. A 2011 study by Procter & Gamble revealed that women who wore make-up were viewed as more competent, likeable and trustworthy than those who did not.

Makeup can not only determine how you are viewed, but also how much you earn. According to a study in the American Economic Review, women who wear makeup can earn 30 percent more than their non-makeup wearing counterparts.

Even though wearing makeup might help some women get further, according to hiring managers it won’t help those who are simply unattractive. A Newsweek survey found that 57 percent of corporate hiring managers say, qualified but un-attractive candidates are likely to have a harder time landing a job.

Karyn Dossinger, a doctoral student research-ing the relationship between physical appearance and career success at the University of Minnesota, explains it could be the positive qualities often associated with attractiveness, rather than mere attractiveness, that lead to faster promotions, earning more money and landing a job.

However, attractiveness isn’t the only thing sub-ject to judgment; stigmas associated with age also cause barriers in the workplace.

Lori Noel, former senior marketing communi-cations manager for Cigna, fears the perception that older employees lack experience with social media and digital communication. Noel believes this impression often puts her at a disadvantage when looking for new job opportunities.

But are these examples of judgments, or re-flections of insecurities? Katie Selby, an associate director of the Undergraduate Business Career Center at the University of Minnesota and a former corporate recruiter, agrees that every-one makes initial judgments, but explains that an individual’s insecurities can influence these judg-ments. Our insecurities, whether it be our height, weight, age or attractiveness, often portray a lack of confidence, which can hinder one in the work-place. Selby says those who lack self-confidence are less likely to take risks, possibly resulting in pay gaps or other disparities related to physical appearance characteristics.

Noel adds that it is important for current and prospective employees to uphold an image that positively reflects themselves and their employer, but it is also important and beneficial for employ-ers to see past an individual’s appearance when making decisions.

“If you can’t see beyond appearance or age, both the employer and prospective employee miss out on the opportunity to add a richness or diversity to their team that might inspire their best work and outcomes,” says Noel.

Gina: The image I try to portray is, “No, I did not just get out of bed.” I haven’t perfected it yet.

Ali: I like to reflect anything that is classic and simple.

Between Snapchat and selfies, Facebook and filters, it’s safe to say that Millennials are the most image-aware generation to date. The staff of Unfiltered is no exception; we’re a unique bunch, each with our own signature style and take on presenting ourselves. These are the images we strive to portray each day, described in our own words.

Ichigo: I’m a self-proclaimed cat-lover, designer, tech nerd, foodie, sci-fi reader, nature-lover and photographer.

Emily: No matter what I’m doing that day, there’s a good chance most of my outfit came from Target. So I guess I’d call my style “ballin’ on a budget.”

Jen: One part viking shield-maiden, one part space marine. Garnish with black leather and zippers. Shake well.

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Juan: Sometimes people say I dress like a foreigner. I do not know if thats a compliment or an insult since I’m actually foreign.

Kate: My style focuses on balancing simple pieces of clothing with hints of detail to communicate a mature, yet stylish image.

Jane: I try to portray the image of an intelligent, cultured and artistic young woman who has her sh** together, even though I definitely do not.

Alyssa: I consider my image to be something of a Venus fly trap. I lure people into a sense of security with my cliché blonde look, and then BAM! I open my mouth.

Nicole: I would say my personal style reflects my interests in modern culture and literary works; strong, independent and authentic.

Jeff: I try to make myself look cool by making myself look like I am not trying to be cool. So I guess I am not really that cool after all. Or am I?

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Cera: My motto is, “Dress every day like you’re going to get murdered in those clothes.” I portray classiness in professionalism and bring style and sass to the drawing board.

Ji Un: Natural. I just try not to look like I am trying hard to be someone else.

Saksham: Dress for confidence and not for someone else! When you know you look good, you feel like you can conquer the day.

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