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Alice Vol. 2 No. 2

Published by UA Student Media in Spring 2017.

Published by UA Student Media in Spring 2017.

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WILD<br />

FLOWER<br />

Flourish this spring season in fantastic styles that<br />

will make you the life of the tea party<br />

STUCK IN THE<br />

FRIEND ZONE<br />

Six students weigh in on<br />

the relationship phenomenon<br />

GIRLS JUST<br />

WANNA HAVE FUN-<br />

DAMENTAL RIGHTS<br />

Defining the modern feminist<br />

$3.99 <strong>Vol</strong>. 2, <strong>No</strong>. 2<br />

BACKFLIPS<br />

FOR BAMA<br />

A day in the life of a<br />

great college gymnast<br />

The University of Alabama | Spring 2017


TIMELY<br />

The clock is ticking on the final days of<br />

winter, and what better way to celebrate<br />

the start of a new season than a trip to<br />

Tuscaloosa’s legendary (and some say<br />

haunted) Drish House? Join <strong>Alice</strong> in this<br />

issue’s adventures, each one more curious<br />

than the last. Cheers!


Letter from the Editor<br />

On the web:<br />

Twitter: @alicethemag<br />

Instagram: @alicethemag<br />

facebook.com/alicethemag<br />

alice.ua.edu<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> on Pinterest:<br />

pinterest.com/alicemagazine<br />

Editorial and Advertising offices for <strong>Alice</strong> Magazine are located at<br />

414 Campus Drive East, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487.<br />

The mailing address is P.O. Box 870170, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487.<br />

Phone: (205) 348-7257.<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> is published by the Office of Student Media<br />

at The University of Alabama.<br />

All content and design are produced by students<br />

in consultation with professional staff advisers.<br />

All material contained herein, except advertising or where<br />

indicated otherwise, is copyrighted © 2017 by <strong>Alice</strong> Magazine.<br />

Material herein may not be reprinted without the<br />

expressed, written permission of <strong>Alice</strong> Magazine.<br />

In the months leading up to the release of this issue, the staff<br />

and I have been working hard to make our best and most edgy<br />

issue yet. As always, we want to put our absolute greatest product<br />

out there for you. We have loved every second of creating this<br />

season’s magazine. From staying deliriously late at the Office of<br />

Student Media to trying to get Wi-Fi in Chengdu, China to make<br />

sure that I haven’t missed any messages about <strong>Alice</strong>, it has been<br />

one heck of a job so far.<br />

For this issue of <strong>Alice</strong>, one of my favorite books came to<br />

life. Through fashion and photography, we were able to create<br />

our version of <strong>Alice</strong> in Wonderland at a charming and inviting<br />

antebellum home, the Drish House. As we adventure into her<br />

world, I came to find our <strong>Alice</strong> is much like Lewis Carroll’s<br />

<strong>Alice</strong>. She is loving, headstrong, carefree, curious, intelligent<br />

and imaginative. I hope you are able to see that young, witty girl<br />

through the stories in our magazine.<br />

We have better fashion, bigger articles and beautiful photos. If<br />

you want to know the best cruelty-free makeup products to use,<br />

go to page 7. For fashion trends and a magical carnival scene,<br />

turn to page 14. Thumb through the magazine to land on our<br />

story about being stuck in the friend zone (page 24). To learn<br />

more about the modern feminist or the LGBTQ community on<br />

campus, flip to page 54 and 58. If you are still hanging on to<br />

those New Year’s resolutions (unfortunately, I am not) go to page<br />

67 to read about kickboxing. Our Q&A with Dillon Hodges a.k.a.<br />

firekid is definitely one not to miss (page 88).<br />

I think everyone knows how proud I am of <strong>Alice</strong>. It’s not just a<br />

bunch of pages to me. It’s the frantic calls to me (sick and asleep)<br />

as my editors pull together an entire fashion shoot at the last<br />

minute. It’s the running up and down the stairs of the Drish<br />

House, which after a few times felt very similar to the steps<br />

of The Great Wall of China. It’s all the experiences and funny<br />

memories from creating <strong>Alice</strong>.<br />

With this spring season, the rain will pour, the flowers will<br />

grow and I can hardly wait for everyone to have this issue of<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> in their hands. My team and I wish you the loveliest time<br />

reading these 92 carefully crafted pages. This issue will probably<br />

pair nicely with a hot cup of tea. As I wrap this letter up, I would<br />

just like to ask, “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” Because I<br />

haven’t the slightest idea.<br />

Paige Burleson


Editorial<br />

Editor in Chief PAIGE BURLESON<br />

Creative Director MARIA OSWALT<br />

Director of Photography EMILY HEATH<br />

Managing Editor CLAIRE TURNER<br />

Market Editors ALLIE BINFORD AND ALEXIS DANZO<br />

Online Editor LAURA TESTINO<br />

Beauty Editor KAILA WASHINGTON<br />

Lifestyle Editor ALLISON COHEN<br />

Assisstant Lifestyle Editor RACHEL WILBURN<br />

Fashion Editor DEVEN FELDSTEIN<br />

Food and Health Editor MADISON SULLIVAN<br />

Entertainment Editor ELLEN JOHNSON<br />

Social Media Coordinator DONICA BURTON<br />

Contributing Writers MADDY ARD, SERENA BAILEY, KATIE BELL, EMILEE BENOS, MIA BLACKMAN,<br />

SARA BETH BOLIN, ALLISON COHEN, JADA CULVER, ELIZABETH ELKIN, ALEXIS FAIRE,<br />

ANALIESE GERALD, KYARRA HARRIS, JILL HOLLOWAY, KATIE HUFF, NICOLE JEFFERY, ELLEN JOHNSON,<br />

ANNA KLEMENT, MARY CLAY KLINE, LAUREN LANE, LAWSON MOHL, CLAIRE TURNER,<br />

CAROLINE WELLS, SAM WEST, RACHEL WILBURN, KELSEY ZAROFF<br />

Contributing Photographers PRESTLEY BRAMLETT, ERIN COHEN, RAMSEY GRIFFIN,<br />

NICOLE RODRIGUEZ, TEAH SHAW, SARAH WESTMORELAND<br />

Models HALEIGH AMEND, MADI BEDSOLE, KATALINA BLAIR, ABIGAIL COLEMAN,<br />

RYLEY FLATHMAN, MALAYSIA FORD, KRISTEN GRAVES,TIERANI JACKSON, XAVIA JACKSON,<br />

NIKKI MCCOOL, DYLAN WALKER, LAUREN WILLIAMS, XI ZHANG<br />

Hair and Makeup HALEIGH AMEND, ALLIE LOWERY, KAILA WASHINGTON<br />

Marketing Team AIMEE INTAGLIATA , BRIANA BETTISON, SHELLEY BUCKLEY, CAROLINE DISIMONI,<br />

KATIE HUFF, MADISON MAYFIELD, COURTNEY SCARBORO, ALEJANDRA TENORIO, JULIA TRAVAGLINE<br />

Advertising<br />

Advertising Manager RUFUS ALDRIDGE (cwadmanager@gmail.com)<br />

Advertising Creative Director GRANT SNOW (cwcreativemanager@gmail.com)<br />

Sales Representatives (205) 348-7845<br />

JADE LEDET, LIZZIE MIZENKO<br />

Advisers<br />

Editorial MARK MAYFIELD (msmayfield1@ua.edu)<br />

Published by UA Office of Student Media<br />

Director PAUL WRIGHT<br />

[2] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


Table of<br />

Contents<br />

Beauty<br />

5 LEARNING FROM THE FRENCH<br />

7 CRITTER CONSCIOUS<br />

9 EYELASH EXTENSIONS<br />

10 PERFECT PERFUME<br />

Fashion<br />

12 LEATHER & LACE<br />

14 ELECTRIC LOVE<br />

ABOUT THE COVER: Down the rabbit hole we fell, as the<br />

historic Drish House in Tuscaloosa, Alabama transformed<br />

into our personal Wonderland. Lose your head over all<br />

the antique teacups, dreamy surroundings and our reminiscent<br />

styling. Join <strong>Alice</strong>, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of<br />

Hearts and the Cheshire Cat for a very important date.<br />

Don’t be late.<br />

Photographer: EMILY HEATH<br />

See story: PAGE 28<br />

Lifestyle<br />

19 LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX<br />

21 48 HOURS IN ATLANTA<br />

24 STUCK IN THE FRIEND ZONE<br />

26 JUNK IN THE TRUNK<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [3]


Features<br />

28 WONDERLAND<br />

40 VICTIM TURNED VICTORIOUS<br />

43 LOTS OF FUR AND A LITTLE FAITH<br />

48 CELEBRATING COLOR<br />

52 GHOST STORIES<br />

54 GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE<br />

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS<br />

58 BEYOND THE BARRIER<br />

Health<br />

& Food<br />

62 VITAMINS, MINERALS AND SUPPLEMENTS, OH MY!<br />

64 BACKFLIPS FOR BAMA<br />

67 A TREND WITH A PUNCH<br />

69 SNACK HACKS<br />

70 FRUIT PIZZA<br />

Entertainment<br />

72 RIDE THE MOON TAXI<br />

74 SPRING BREAK READS<br />

76 HOLLYWOOD’S HELPING HANDS<br />

77 SECRETS OF SPOTIFY<br />

79 FUNNY FACE<br />

82 TALE AS OLD AS TIME<br />

87 UPCOMING CONCERTS<br />

88 FIREKID Q&A<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> would like to thank<br />

the following stores for<br />

providing outfits and<br />

accessories for photo shoots:<br />

LULUS.COM<br />

FRANCESCA’S<br />

AZ WELL<br />

LAVISH<br />

PANTS STORE<br />

TWICE AS NICE<br />

BURCH AND HATFIELD TUXEDO<br />

URBAN OUTFITTERS<br />

[4] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


BEAUTY<br />

Learning from<br />

the French<br />

By Anna Klement<br />

It’s no secret the French are enviable<br />

when it comes to many things. They<br />

are natural leaders of style, dating back<br />

to the French Revolution in the time of<br />

powdered wigs and outlandish beauty<br />

treatments — trés chic.<br />

I don’t think anyone actually knows<br />

what makes the French so good at<br />

everything when it comes to beauty,<br />

fashion and their<br />

general je ne sais<br />

quoi. Maybe it’s<br />

their low-maintenance<br />

regimens or their ability to<br />

make a crisp white t-shirt and jeans<br />

look glamorous. Or maybe it’s their<br />

innocence when bombarded with questions<br />

about their skin care regimen,<br />

when the answers are quite simple.<br />

In the world of<br />

beauty, you could<br />

find an array of articles,<br />

digital and<br />

print, of American<br />

women trying<br />

to pinpoint what it<br />

is that makes the<br />

French so damn<br />

effortless and cool.<br />

From the extensive<br />

research done<br />

by a beauty junkie,<br />

like myself, I have<br />

found the French take a holistic, medical<br />

approach to skin care. The saying<br />

“less is better” is certainly true.<br />

Rarely will you see a French woman<br />

with a full face of makeup (unless it’s<br />

Marie Antoinette) and I believe this is<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [5]


something the French admire about<br />

American women — we can pull off a<br />

face of makeup and look put-together.<br />

However, we Americans tend to have<br />

the “if there’s a flaw, fix it” attitude on<br />

our face and body. If we have wrinkles,<br />

we get Botox. If we get a pimple, we do<br />

a Google search and buy the best-selling<br />

“blemish diminish” product Sephora<br />

offers. It’s amazing that it’s considered<br />

hygienic to go to the dentist twice<br />

a year to clean our teeth, but facials<br />

are considered a luxury instead of a<br />

necessary deep cleaning. This is all<br />

overwhelming to the French, who take<br />

to simple, medical or natural remedies<br />

– which doesn’t mean their products<br />

can’t be luxurious.<br />

It’s amazing that it’s considered hygienic to<br />

go to the dentist twice a year to clean our<br />

teeth, but facials are considered a luxury<br />

instead of a necessary deep cleaning.<br />

They rock their freckles or tooth gaps.<br />

As far as makeup goes, they are crazy<br />

unique. <strong>No</strong> one does a signature<br />

smoky eye with nude lips, messy hair<br />

and bushy eyebrows like Françoise<br />

Hardy or Jane Birkin. And there’s<br />

nothing more feminine than minimal<br />

makeup with pale skin and a<br />

bold red lip.<br />

When it comes to products, you<br />

can find a mirage of beauty products<br />

with French heritages. NARS makeup<br />

makes one of the best blush tones<br />

that makeup artists use on all types<br />

of women. Caudalie’s Beauty Elixir<br />

is a life-changing product I’ve been<br />

using for a few years that refreshes,<br />

tones and cools my skin mid-afternoon.<br />

La Roche Posay<br />

makes wonderful<br />

sunscreens, which is<br />

a priority to French<br />

women. Sun care<br />

is essential to preserve longevity and<br />

protect your skin. Loccitane Sweet<br />

Almond Oil is a hydrating, nourishing<br />

formula, which is naturally great<br />

for your skin. Of course, Chanel and<br />

Lancôme are beauty giant brands that<br />

will always be timeless in the world<br />

of beauty — but isn’t that what the<br />

French are so great at?<br />

In an interview with Elle, actress<br />

Clémence Poésy gives us the secret to<br />

French style: “Uhh… being born in<br />

France?” she said innocently. Perhaps<br />

one of the greatest things about this<br />

romance with French beauty is that<br />

they are completely oblivious to what<br />

makes them so beautiful. *<br />

But don’t mistake low-maintenance<br />

for negligence. The French definitely<br />

invest in their skin creams and<br />

formulas. French pharmacies are a<br />

beauty lover’s dream. They are filled<br />

with aisles of skin care and topical<br />

medicines. French women are not gym<br />

junkies. In fact, they rarely work out.<br />

Instead, they believe in nature<br />

walks or taking the stairs.<br />

The only thing they’re lazy<br />

at is their makeup routine.<br />

They eat cleaner, not necessarily<br />

vegan or healthy,<br />

but definitely minimize the<br />

processed food. This is huge<br />

in skin care, and any dermatologist<br />

will recommend you<br />

change your diet before you<br />

walk into the office freaking<br />

out about that weird and rare<br />

phenomenon on your chin called<br />

“acne.” French women embrace<br />

their weight and impurities and<br />

tend to enjoy au natural lifestyles.<br />

[6] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


BEAUTY<br />

CRITTER<br />

CONSCIOUS<br />

By Lawson Mohl<br />

With an increasing awareness about what goes<br />

into the products we know and love, it’s no surprise<br />

that we’re caring more about how ethical the<br />

things we put on our skin really are. As much<br />

as we love our glittering eyeshadows and matte<br />

lipsticks, if our pets had to wear them, would we<br />

consider buying?<br />

“Cruelty-free” is a label popping up everywhere,<br />

sometimes proudly displayed on both indie and<br />

name brands alike and sometimes discovered<br />

through an online search. Regardless, if you’re<br />

looking for brands that are both quality and treat<br />

our furry friends well, <strong>Alice</strong> has got your guide.<br />

CRUELTY-FREE GUIDELINES<br />

You may be asking yourself, what even defines<br />

a makeup brand as cruelty-free? According<br />

to logicalharmony.net (a fantastic source for all<br />

your ethical makeup needs), cruelty-free products<br />

have no form of animal testing at any stage of<br />

the product development. Cruelty-free makeup<br />

doesn’t automatically mean a product is vegan:<br />

In order to claim that label, companies can’t use<br />

any ingredient that comes from animals in their<br />

production.<br />

The Edgy Friend: Urban Decay<br />

The adoration of Urban Decay<br />

eyeshadows is no secret to makeup<br />

artists and lovers everywhere. While<br />

also being cruelty-free, Urban Decay’s<br />

Naked palettes have been wildly successful<br />

throughout all of their iterations.<br />

They’ve collaborated with Gwen<br />

Stefani and featured Ruby Rose in<br />

their Vice lipstick campaign (if you’re<br />

looking for a bold lip, check the collection<br />

out). And don’t forget about their<br />

Primer Potion eye primer, which is<br />

well-loved as one of the greats.<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [7]


The Sleeper Hit: ColourPop<br />

Boasting low prices and a range of<br />

product, ColourPop has made waves<br />

in the beauty scene over the past few<br />

years as being both affordable and<br />

good quality. Along with being cruelty-free,<br />

the brand has a variety of lip<br />

products spanning an assortment of<br />

colors, textures and finishes. Their<br />

pigmented shadows and creamy eyeliners<br />

(they don’t budge in the waterline<br />

– seriously) are nothing to laugh<br />

at either.<br />

The Colorful Confectioner: Sugarpill<br />

Sugarpill has gained recognition for<br />

their Pro Palette, a way for makeup<br />

addicts to customize exactly what pans<br />

of Sugarpill shadow go into their purchase.<br />

While also being cruelty-free,<br />

they have a selection of vegan products<br />

from lipsticks to lashes that they make<br />

a special note of on their website. The<br />

pigment of Sugarpill’s eyeshadows<br />

is raved about: Many attribute their<br />

Love+ pressed eyeshadow as being<br />

the best true red on the market, and<br />

they carry a diverse spread of other<br />

bright colors. *<br />

The Ultimate Glow:<br />

Anastasia Beverly Hills<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> has already covered Anastasia’s<br />

Glow Kits, but it bears repeating:<br />

They’re the perfect highlighters for<br />

achieving your dream celestial glow,<br />

and they have a range of kits for every<br />

skin tone. On top of being cruelty-free,<br />

Anastasia Beverly Hills released their<br />

Modern Renaissance palette a while<br />

back, the ultimate collection of every<br />

warm-tone shadow we could ever<br />

dream of. Their brow products are also<br />

perfect for sculpting your way to an effortless<br />

eyebrow.<br />

So whether you’re an eyeliner<br />

person, a foundation person or just<br />

love it all, there’s a brand out there<br />

that’s perfect for you and your furry<br />

friend. Next time you’re exploring<br />

your local Sephora, be sure to support<br />

the companies that support the<br />

environment, too.<br />

[8] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


BEAUTY<br />

By Nicole Jeffery<br />

If you are a woman who enjoys applying a fresh face of<br />

makeup to look and feel your best, then you know that the most<br />

unenjoyable part is applying your mascara while making that<br />

scary Grudge face, trying not to gouge your eyeballs out for<br />

about five minutes every day. And if you are really trying to<br />

step up your game, then you know that tampering with false<br />

lashes isn’t such a quick task either. But to what lengths,<br />

and to what costs, are you willing to achieve that whispy,<br />

butterfly effect?<br />

As the eyelash extension trend grows, we hear more and<br />

more mixed reviews about the tolerance and money that goes<br />

into maintaining them. We also hear horror stories of permanent<br />

eyelash loss due to extensions, and we couldn’t help but<br />

dig deeper into finding out the backstory of these tragedies.<br />

If you’re worried about ruining your real lashes, fear not.<br />

Just like every other hair follicle on your body, eyelashes<br />

fall out and regrow as a part of a natural cycle, which is a<br />

full six to eight weeks. However, if done incorrectly, eyelash<br />

extensions can cause minor temporary damage. As long as<br />

they are applied with quality and skill, the outcome is truly<br />

envious yet effortless lashes.<br />

Lash extension applications can take as long as two hours.<br />

Because everyone’s lash growth varies, eyelash technicians<br />

suggest a refill every three to four weeks to maintain the full<br />

look. That being said, if you are someone who gets anxious<br />

being confined in a nail salon for long periods of time, then<br />

it is likely that repeating the lash extension process once a<br />

month is not ideal. However, if you dread the facial cramps<br />

that come from everyday mascara application like I do, then<br />

laying down on a salon bed every once in a while to replace the<br />

mascara routine would not be something to complain about.<br />

One thing everyone should know about lash extensions<br />

is that they are a second job. After your first fill, you will<br />

usually receive a list of rules explaining the habits you must<br />

form in order to keep them looking full and neatly feathered.<br />

If you are interested in getting lash extensions then<br />

you have to be okay with daily combing, sleeping on your<br />

back and applying baby oil daily to keep them from drying<br />

out. Despite all of these requirements, lash extensions can<br />

completely enhance your entire look and you will find yourself<br />

drowning in compliments.<br />

So the remaining question is: are lash extensions really<br />

worth the money? The answer is yes – and no. Everyone is<br />

different and is entitled to their own preferences. The saying<br />

“there is no right way to apply makeup” relates to the<br />

fact that not all women are going to experience the same<br />

reaction to certain makeup products and techniques. So the<br />

answer is no, because it is possible that you pay up to $180<br />

for a thick set of lashes and come to find out that they just<br />

aren’t for you. In contrast, many lash extension businesses<br />

have been very successful and have converted countless<br />

women from the hassle of using mascara and false lashes.<br />

Just like as you would with a hair stylist, research your<br />

local lash extension technicians, read reviews and find before-and-after<br />

pictures to guarantee quality service. So<br />

ditch your mascara or don’t, but either way embrace your<br />

unique beauty through every makeup trend! *<br />

Crisis Pregnancy?<br />

We want to help you.<br />

Free Counseling,<br />

Adoption, and<br />

Multi-Level<br />

Support Services<br />

Available<br />

205-324-6561<br />

info@cfsbhm.org<br />

www.cfsbhm.org<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [9]


BEAUTY<br />

We all know perfume is the last step to complete your<br />

daily routine. We know the drill: You spray some Victoria’s<br />

Secret body spray in the air and shimmy through it before<br />

leaving for class. However, two hours into your day, that<br />

fragrance is gone and you find yourself smelling like sweat<br />

rather than “pure seduction.”<br />

If you’ve tried everything from Dove to Juicy Couture<br />

and still feel defeated, try out these three steps and find the<br />

key to solving all your perfume problems.<br />

#1: THE HIGHER THE PRICE,<br />

THE HIGHER THE CONCENTRATION<br />

This means the longer the scent will linger on your<br />

clothes or skin. So remember, consider the concentration before<br />

splurging. Perfume (parfum) is composed of 20 to 40<br />

percent pure perfume essence. This is the most concentrated<br />

and most expensive of all fragrances. That being said, a<br />

single application can last up to 24 hours.<br />

This is followed by Eau de Parfum (EDP), a more common<br />

concentrate, which contains 15 to 20 percent pure perfume<br />

essence and lasts five to eight hours.<br />

After Eau de Parfum, is Eau de Toilette (EDT). This<br />

lighter spray is composed of 7 to 15 percent concentration<br />

and lasts usually three hours.<br />

Eau de Cologne is next, a masculine scent which is composed<br />

of three to seven percent perfume oils in alcohol and<br />

water, making the scent prominent for only two hours.<br />

Lastly, the most diluted of all is Eau Fraiche with only<br />

one to three percent perfume oil. With the smallest amount<br />

of concentration, it usually lasts for less than one hour.<br />

PERFECT<br />

PERFUME:<br />

Your<br />

[10] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

guide to<br />

fab fragrances<br />

By Kelsey Zaroff


#2: APPLY FRAGRANCES IN PLACES<br />

WHERE THE BODY TEMPERATURE IS HIGH<br />

Your natural body heat releases the perfume ingredients.<br />

For males, this includes the jaw, neck and shoulders. If<br />

that is not strong enough, go for the chest and wrist, as they<br />

have the next highest temperatures.<br />

For females, try spraying perfume behind your ears, and<br />

on your neck and chest. If you want to ensure the perfume<br />

lasts, follow by applying to your shoulders, wrist and behind<br />

your knees. These three areas create the next highest<br />

temperatures on the body.<br />

However, remember that less is more. Start with one<br />

spray and apply directly to dry skin after showering. As fun<br />

as it is to spray a cloud of perfume, the scent lasts longer<br />

when applied directly to the skin, not to your clothes.<br />

#3: HAVE DIFFERENT FRAGRANCES<br />

FOR DIFFERENT OCCASIONS AND SEASONS<br />

Our typical “night out” fragrance might not<br />

be something we want to wear to class everyday.<br />

There is something exciting about saving that<br />

special perfume for a night out on the town. Opt<br />

for lighter fragrances during the day and more<br />

powerful concentrates in the evening.<br />

Just like changing your lipstick depending<br />

on the seasons, you can do the same with perfume.<br />

In winter, remember that the air is dry<br />

and cold, so try wearing a stronger and more<br />

powerful fragrance. In the summer, go for those<br />

citrus and floral notes that energize and capture<br />

the warmth of the season.<br />

MY TOP PICKS<br />

Bobbi Brown Beach<br />

Chloe: Roses de Chloe<br />

Gucci Guilty<br />

Chanel Coco<br />

Mademoiselle<br />

Eau de Parfum<br />

Elizabeth and James<br />

Find Your Nirvana<br />

Rollerball Set<br />

UNDERSTANDING<br />

THE BASICS<br />

*<br />

TOP NOTES<br />

What you smell immediately<br />

after applying the perfume. Top<br />

notes create your initial impression<br />

of the perfume. Common top<br />

notes include citrus and ginger.<br />

MIDDLE NOTES<br />

Middle notes can also be called<br />

heart notes. The scents from this note<br />

usually appear anywhere from two minutes<br />

to one hour after applying the perfume.<br />

They create the main body between<br />

the initial smells and the base smells. Common<br />

middle notes include lavender and rose.<br />

BASE NOTES<br />

These notes are usually richer, bringing<br />

the depth to the perfume. These scents are<br />

not noticed until hours after application.<br />

A strong base note, like musk, can still<br />

be detectable 24 hours after applying<br />

the fragrance.<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [11]


FASHION<br />

Photos by Ramsey Griffin<br />

Jacket: Twice As Nice<br />

White dress: Free People<br />

Green jacket: Francesca’s<br />

White top: Pants Store<br />

Brown shorts: Az Well<br />

Black hat: Lulu’s<br />

Solid black shirt: Pants Store<br />

Leather & Lace<br />

Embroidered elements can reinvigorate your spring wardobe with fresh femininity<br />

[12] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [13]


FASHION<br />

ELECTRIC LOVE<br />

Step right up to see this spring’s magnificent metallics and striking slip dresses. Cotton candy not included.<br />

[14] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


Photos by Emily Heath<br />

LEFT<br />

Dress: Lavish<br />

RIGHT<br />

Dress: Lulu’s<br />

Jacket: Lulu’s<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [15]


LEFT<br />

Dress: Lulu’s<br />

Shirt: Brandy Melville<br />

RIGHT<br />

Grey bodysuit: Lulu’s<br />

Leather skirt: Az Well<br />

Gold skirt: Francesca’s<br />

Purple top: Lavish<br />

Striped top: Az Well<br />

Wrap-around skirt: Az Well<br />

[16] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [17]


Don’t miss our next issue!<br />

Award-winning <strong>Alice</strong> returns<br />

for a big Summer Preview<br />

issue in May. Only $3.99<br />

for a single copy, or $9.99<br />

for a three-issue subscription<br />

at store.osm.ua.edu


LIFESTYLE<br />

Let’s Talk About Sex<br />

By Jill Holloway<br />

Editor’s note: Last names have been<br />

changed for privacy.<br />

Growing up in the Bible Belt, sex<br />

was rarely talked about. My sex education<br />

class was held in a church and<br />

the only thing I remember learning<br />

was “Abstinence. Is. Key.” Our teacher<br />

was a 60-year-old, white-haired, model<br />

churchgoer and her lesson was simple:<br />

Two people only engage in sex once<br />

they are married. Eleven years later,<br />

I still hold that lesson close to me.<br />

Talking to other college students, I realized<br />

my view on sex was not a common<br />

view today, as it has become much<br />

more casual.<br />

There is no longer a set time that<br />

a couple should wait to take their romance<br />

to the next level. In fact, many<br />

believe there is no need to be in a<br />

relationship at all.<br />

“I think girls and guys are allowed<br />

to have one night stands,” said Rebecca<br />

Cannon, 20. “I think if they both want<br />

that then perfect, but a guy always<br />

needs to be respectful of a woman.”<br />

Nick Carringer, 22, said he thinks<br />

the proper amount of time to wait before<br />

having sex is just one week, depending<br />

on what those two people are<br />

trying to do.<br />

“If a girl puts out too quick it says<br />

a lot about her, but sometimes you just<br />

want a random drunk hookup,” Carringer<br />

said.<br />

Cannon said she does not think<br />

there is a specific marker, but instead<br />

two people should engage in sex<br />

whenever they are ready.<br />

“For me personally it’s when the<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [19]


time is right in the moment,” Cannon<br />

said. “I just think it is a feeling.”<br />

Casey James, 20, agreed. She said<br />

she thinks it is important to be emotionally<br />

ready and self-assured, but<br />

communication is key and both people<br />

need to be in the right mindset. Sex is<br />

not just another physical aspect of a<br />

relationship, although it<br />

can create an emotional<br />

connection between<br />

two people that was not<br />

previously present.<br />

“It can be both physical<br />

and emotional,”<br />

Nick Carringer said.<br />

“It depends on the person<br />

and situation. Good<br />

sex is an emotional<br />

connection.”<br />

While “good” sex differs<br />

for everyone, the<br />

physical aspect remains<br />

the same. Cannon points<br />

out that whether you<br />

want to or not, “you look<br />

at that person differently<br />

after you have been physical with<br />

them.” She said she does think it creates<br />

an emotional connection because<br />

it’s extremely intimate.<br />

James agreed with Cannon’s remark,<br />

mentioning, “I think it creates<br />

an emotional connection because<br />

it’s you exposed; it’s the rawest form<br />

of yourself.”<br />

[20] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

With a flood of emotions running<br />

through your head and trying to make<br />

sure the hookup goes perfectly, sexually<br />

transmitted diseases and testing<br />

often go unmentioned. Cannon said<br />

she probably would not ask them to<br />

be tested or say, “You have to go get<br />

one,” but she may ask if they have ever<br />

“I think it creates<br />

an emotional connection<br />

because<br />

it’s you exposed;<br />

it’s the rawest<br />

form of yourself.”<br />

previously had an STD. James agreed<br />

she wouldn’t ask if it was a hookup,<br />

but made an exception when it comes<br />

to her boyfriend.<br />

“I would ask how many girls he<br />

has slept with; try to make it casual,”<br />

she said.<br />

Although girls and guys often view<br />

sex differently, they did agree on exclusivity.<br />

If two people are consistently<br />

hooking up exclusively, but have yet to<br />

put a label on what they have, it often<br />

leaves room for confusion. It goes<br />

back to James’ earlier statement —<br />

“communication is key.”<br />

“I would expect to be dating in the<br />

near future, or at least commitment,”<br />

she said. “If you’re hooking<br />

up without feelings,<br />

you would be hooking up<br />

with other people.”<br />

Cannon held those<br />

same thoughts. “I’m<br />

probably thinking it will<br />

turn into an actual relationship,<br />

if we are both<br />

just hooking up with<br />

each other there’s obviously<br />

a reason for that.”<br />

Carringer was not<br />

sure where he thought it<br />

may go after that, but he<br />

does believe, “you can’t<br />

be mad if you haven’t<br />

talked about it yet.”<br />

Whether if it is in the<br />

moment, or a special night that was<br />

planned out by two people engaging in<br />

sex for the first time, there is no right<br />

or wrong way to go about it. Just make<br />

your intentions clear about what you<br />

expect and do not feel pressured to feel<br />

a certain way. Every person sees sex<br />

for something different and values it in<br />

their own way. *


LIFESTYLE<br />

48<br />

hours in<br />

Atlanta<br />

By Allison Cohen<br />

If you’re looking for a travel destination with comfort food,<br />

plenty of room for adventure and sweet tea that flows like water, all<br />

wrapped up in an urban, big-city environment, the Southern charm<br />

of Atlanta is sure to win you over.<br />

Day 1<br />

9 a.m. Start your day one pancake at<br />

a time with Buttermilk Kitchen. From<br />

breakfast to brunch, you won’t be<br />

disappointed with this classic, Southern-styled<br />

hot spot. Don’t hesitate to<br />

ask the background behind each dish<br />

because their ingredients come from<br />

local vendors all across the state of<br />

Georgia. You’ll want to pace yourself<br />

through your meal because this crowd<br />

favorite gives generous portion sizes.<br />

10 a.m. Catch some fresh air, cool<br />

finds and good food at Ponce City Market.<br />

Established in a newly renovated<br />

warehouse, the market is not only<br />

a great location to check out trendy<br />

shops, but also doubles as a rooftop<br />

attraction dubbed Skyline Park. Here<br />

you’ll find carnival games, mini golf<br />

and sweet treats with a killer view of<br />

the city. Feel free to grab a bite for<br />

lunch at Skyline or at one of the many<br />

restaurants below the park.<br />

1 p.m. Directly connected to Ponce<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [21]


City Market is the BeltLine, a 22-mile<br />

continuous trail that circles the perimeter<br />

of downtown Atlanta. There are<br />

also 11 more miles to discover that<br />

branch off to local parks, restaurants<br />

and neighborhoods. Take the Eastside<br />

Trail from the market and venture to<br />

one of the largest green spaces in the<br />

city, Piedmont Park. Be sure to snap<br />

pictures of local artwork and murals<br />

along the way!<br />

3 p.m. If walking around worked up<br />

your appetite for a quick snack, stop by<br />

Henri’s Bakery and Café for internationally<br />

recognized baked goods. Henri’s<br />

has been an Atlanta staple since<br />

1929 after French immigrant Henri<br />

Fiscus traveled to the States as a<br />

pastry chef, and the location has been<br />

in the family ever since. The cheese<br />

straws and shortbread cookies are a<br />

must-try.<br />

6 p.m. In the heart of Buckhead there<br />

is Café Agora, a Mediterranean restaurant<br />

that’s as authentic as they come.<br />

The restaurant is tucked away and not<br />

very flashy; however, it’s a diamond in<br />

the rough. Café Agora’s combination of<br />

Turkish and Greek cuisines will give<br />

you a taste and experience that’s incredibly<br />

unique. Pro tip – make sure to<br />

leave room for the homemade baklava.<br />

10:30 p.m. Get your first taste of<br />

Atlanta nightlife at the Ivy. This upscale,<br />

laid back lounge has four bars<br />

scattered throughout its venue. If the<br />

weather is nice, hang out by the gazebo<br />

on the outdoor patio or relax upstairs<br />

on the rooftop. Inside on the main floor,<br />

a wraparound bar takes center stage<br />

and a fourth, secluded bar is not far<br />

beyond the dance floor. As far as attire<br />

goes, plan to dress snappy casual.<br />

Photos by Erin Cohen<br />

[22] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


Day 2<br />

10 a.m. Recover from last night’s<br />

shenanigans by sleeping in and waking<br />

up with the Westside’s Taqueria<br />

del Sol. Unlike your typical Mexican<br />

restaurant, Taqueria’s food is far from<br />

greasy and will leave you feeling the<br />

right level of satisfied. This is a popular<br />

go-to spot for Atlanta locals, so<br />

make sure to get there early. When<br />

you’re done, swing by Jeni’s Splendid<br />

Ice Creams right next door and choose<br />

from 28 funky flavors.<br />

2 p.m. If you’re feeling artsy, check<br />

out The High Museum of Art (pictured<br />

left). Get a heads up on what to expect<br />

by going online to preview the current<br />

exhibits. You’ll also have the option to<br />

view upcoming exhibits online if you’d<br />

like to plan your trip in advance.<br />

www.high.org // Tickets: $14.50<br />

4 p.m. Don’t leave Atlanta empty<br />

handed! Walk around Virginia Highlands<br />

in Midtown and pop in and out<br />

of the local boutiques that line the<br />

area. There are lots of great restaurants<br />

in this area too, so take the<br />

opportunity to scout for potential<br />

dinner contenders.<br />

6 p.m. If your dinner plans are still<br />

up in the air, Ormsby’s is a must-try.<br />

The two-floor tavern offers not only<br />

fantastic pub fare, but also an entertaining<br />

atmosphere for large groups.<br />

Down below you’ll find games such<br />

as indoor bocce ball, darts, pool and<br />

more. Ormsby’s is open to the general<br />

public all day; however, entry becomes<br />

21+ after 6 p.m.<br />

11 p.m. Every city has a prime bar<br />

location and Atlanta’s would be the<br />

Buckhead bar district off of Roswell<br />

Road. Post up at Lost Dog for live<br />

music on the back porch or dance your<br />

heart out at Big Sky down the road.<br />

The area holds over 10 bars that are<br />

directly next to each other, making<br />

this an ideal location to bar hop on<br />

a budget. *<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [23]


LIFESTYLE<br />

Stuck in the<br />

By Rachel Wilburn<br />

We’ve all been there: you meet someone<br />

new. They’re cute, sweet, funny<br />

— the real deal. A few group hangouts<br />

later, you guys are really hitting<br />

it off. And then it happens: they ask if<br />

your ~adorable~ best friend is single.<br />

You’re getting friend zoned. It happens<br />

to the best of us, and it can be<br />

confusing.<br />

But thanks to a few great guys, we<br />

have compiled The Ultimate Guide to<br />

Avoiding the Friend Zone 101. Let’s<br />

get down to the nitty gritty. What even<br />

is the “friend zone,” how can you tell<br />

when you’re being friend zoned, and<br />

better yet, what can you do about it?<br />

So, let’s start with the basics. For<br />

those who don’t know, the “friend zone”<br />

happens when one friend develops romantic<br />

feelings for another and wants<br />

to be “more than friends.” Often, the<br />

friend’s feelings are unknown to their<br />

counterpart or they are quite happy<br />

with a friendship-only basis – and voila,<br />

you’ve entered the friend zone.<br />

Next thing you know, you’re standing<br />

there looking him in the eyes, trying<br />

to figure out the best answer to his<br />

question. Do you give him her number?<br />

Do you confess your feelings? But honestly,<br />

how did you end up there in the<br />

first place?<br />

Sometimes, it’s something as simple<br />

as physical attraction. Studies show<br />

that most people can tell if they’re at-<br />

[24] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

tracted to someone within the first 90<br />

seconds of meeting.<br />

“As shallow as it is, I would say part of<br />

it is appearance. If you’re not attracted<br />

to someone, you may just never think<br />

of her as more than a friend. But sometimes<br />

when you get to know them and<br />

their personality is amazing then the<br />

way you see them can change and<br />

you have no idea why you didn’t see<br />

it before.”<br />

–Johnny, 21<br />

Other times, it’s a little deeper. Typically,<br />

the friend zone grows out of an established<br />

friendship. When you’re that<br />

close with someone, there’s a chance<br />

that they A.) know a lot about you and<br />

B.) care deeply about you. They probably<br />

have seen the good and the bad,<br />

and more than likely, have heard you<br />

talk about other guys from the past.<br />

This can be ground for insecurity or<br />

fear of hurting you again. All of these<br />

things can become potential contributing<br />

factors.<br />

“One thing is being too open about<br />

their sex life. I don’t think someone’s<br />

number should ever be discussed. If<br />

she’s dated friends, that’s definitely a<br />

cause for a friend zone.”<br />

– Zach, 20<br />

“Usually it’s because I value her<br />

and have some apprehension about<br />

losing the friendship if things don’t<br />

work out. I’d say that’s probably the<br />

big one.”<br />

– Clayton, 26<br />

But don’t forget that guys are also<br />

just that – guys. He might just think of<br />

you as one of the bros or he might have<br />

eyes for someone else. If he spends a lot<br />

of time talking about Jess from biology,<br />

it’s likely that he’s so wrapped up in<br />

finding out if she likes him back that<br />

he doesn’t even see that you’re falling<br />

head over heels.<br />

“I friend zone girls when I have eyes<br />

for someone else and am blind to the<br />

prospect of someone being inter-<br />

Attraction is unpredictable, but it<br />

doesn’t come out of nowhere ... you<br />

want a guy to want you for you.<br />

–Colton, 22


Friend Zone<br />

ested in me like that. The thought is<br />

some variation of ‘if the girl I’m interested<br />

in doesn’t see me that way, then<br />

how can anyone else?’ Obviously, it’s<br />

a stupid thought process, but guys<br />

seem to be wired one of two ways:<br />

pursue everything that has a pulse<br />

or pursue only one girl and be completely<br />

oblivious to anyone else.”<br />

– Tyler, 19<br />

The friend zone can be complicated,<br />

annoying, and, honestly, a little<br />

heart-wrenching. But don’t give up!<br />

Because according to our friend zone<br />

experts, it’s not chocolate-in-bed-andchick-flick<br />

worthy quite yet. There are<br />

plenty of things to do (and not do) to<br />

make him take a second glance.<br />

First off, flirting actually works.<br />

In fact, according to news website<br />

The Week, it may be more effective<br />

than just being physically attractive<br />

for getting his attention. Start<br />

with something as simple as a light<br />

touch on the arm, leaning in closer<br />

when he’s talking or even just smiling<br />

when you catch each other’s eyes.<br />

Show him that you value him and his<br />

time by being present and engaged in<br />

your conversations.<br />

“Personally my strongest love languages<br />

are physical touch and spending<br />

quality time together. Getting flirty<br />

with touch and spending one-on-one<br />

time with me is the best way to make<br />

me question how I feel about someone.<br />

When someone starts throwing<br />

touches into conversation, I start trying<br />

to figure out if they’re being flirty<br />

or not.”<br />

– Caleb, 23<br />

“One of the biggest things for me is<br />

a girl constantly being on their phone.<br />

It’s a huge turn off. Also, I think texting<br />

someone 24/7 is bad because you<br />

never get a break. It’s like the conversation<br />

just never ends. I think some<br />

space is healthy.”<br />

– Johnny, 21<br />

Second, let’s talk about the fact<br />

that it is 2017, and you don’t have to<br />

wait for him to make the first move.<br />

Rejection and embarrassment can be<br />

overwhelming. However, a woman who<br />

approaches a man stands out. Your<br />

bold, no-holds-barred approach says<br />

you are confident, spontaneous, brave,<br />

outgoing and direct. Don’t hinder your<br />

chances and opportunities by thinking<br />

you are not good enough (or too good)<br />

to approach him first.<br />

“I wish girls were more up front<br />

about their feelings. Make that first<br />

move! Guys can be pretty oblivious<br />

to subtle hints, so straightforward is<br />

definitely the way to go.”<br />

– Tyler, 19<br />

Finally, and most importantly, own<br />

who you are. He’s your friend for a reason;<br />

likely, he thinks you’re cool, funny,<br />

sweet — all the things that make<br />

you, you! The worst thing you can do is<br />

try to be someone you’re not to impress<br />

him. Celebrate the fact that you love<br />

tacos or drink pink wine, cry in way<br />

too many movies or claim your fuzzy<br />

socks as your most prized possession.<br />

“Be okay with you. If you’ve been<br />

friend zoned by a guy you like, you’re<br />

not out of luck. Attraction is unpredictable,<br />

but it doesn’t come out of<br />

nowhere. Think about the qualities<br />

you embody. Just like you probably<br />

have certain qualities you’re looking<br />

for in a guy, so do your masculine<br />

counterparts. You want a guy to want<br />

you for you. So as long as you’re being<br />

the best version of yourself you can<br />

be, you’re in the right place.”<br />

– Colton, 22<br />

“Odds are if he friend zoned you, it’s<br />

a good bet he did it for a reason. Don’t<br />

waste your time with that guy anymore.<br />

Stay friends. Hang out. Do your<br />

thing, but don’t pine over him. If he’s<br />

not giving you his full attention, he’s<br />

not worth it. Also, if some guy is friend<br />

zoning you and you find yourself complaining<br />

to another guy about it, you<br />

might be the one friend zoning someone<br />

else.”<br />

– Clayton, 26<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [25]


LIFESTYLE<br />

JUNK<br />

IN THE<br />

TRUNK<br />

By Katie Bell<br />

Have you ever sat at a red light and<br />

thought, “I wonder what that person<br />

has in the back of their trunk?” Just<br />

like life and a box of chocolates,<br />

you never know what you might<br />

get when you pop open the back<br />

of someone’s car. <strong>Alice</strong> took a peek<br />

at some of the junk in the trunk of<br />

five strangers.<br />

THE TRAVELING STORE<br />

THE OUTDOORSMAN<br />

“Basically, I am ready anytime, any<br />

day to go camping. I have a tent, foldout<br />

chairs, a mini grill, fishing equipment,<br />

sleeping bags and blankets all<br />

ready to go camping whenever I want.<br />

This weather has been great for camping<br />

– why waste time packing?”<br />

– Andrew, 22<br />

THE NURSE<br />

“I work as a nurse in Birmingham<br />

and Tuscaloosa, so I always have<br />

scrubs, a stethoscope, gauze, Band-<br />

Aids and a bunch of random first aid<br />

items in my trunk. It works out well<br />

because I am always that person that<br />

has hydrogen peroxide or aspirin when<br />

someone needs it.”<br />

– Ashlyn, 23<br />

[26] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

“I have no room for storage in my<br />

apartment, but I buy everything in<br />

bulk from Sam’s. I have toilet paper,<br />

breakfast bars, paper plates, dryer<br />

sheets, soda... you name it, I probably<br />

have it. It really comes in handy when<br />

you’re at a party and someone runs out<br />

of paper towels or garbage bags.”<br />

– Alex, 25<br />

“This is going to sound bad, but<br />

I have a cooler with a 12 pack ready<br />

when I need it. I work until 6 every<br />

weekday, and I hate wasting time going<br />

to buy beer or mixers before going<br />

out. It’s really about convenience, and<br />

it’s there when I need it.”<br />

THE LIFE OF THE PARTY<br />

– Sarah, 21<br />

THE #1 FAN<br />

“I basically carry the tailgate around<br />

with me all week. I have pom-poms, a<br />

cooler, a table, lawn chairs and cornhole<br />

all in my trunk. You would never<br />

guess that could all fit in there, but<br />

it can. Every Saturday and Sunday<br />

we break out the goods for the weekend<br />

and have a blast. I just don’t have<br />

enough room in my apartment to take<br />

it inside.”<br />

– Lauren, 21


30<br />

40<br />

43<br />

48<br />

52<br />

54<br />

60<br />

Features<br />

Wonderland<br />

Victim Turned Victorious<br />

Lots of Fur and a Little Faith<br />

Celebrating Color<br />

Ghost Stories<br />

Girls Just Wanna Have<br />

Fundamental Rights<br />

Beyond the Barrier<br />

Photo by Emily Heath


[28] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


WONDERLAND<br />

“Do you suppose<br />

she’s a wildflower?”<br />

from Lewis Carroll’s<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> in Wonderland<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [29]<br />

Photo by Prestley Bramlett


“Yes, that’s it!”<br />

said the Hatter with a sigh.<br />

“It’s always tea time.”<br />

Photo by Emily Heath Photo by Emily Heath<br />

Photo by Prestley Bramlett<br />

[30] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


Mad Hatter outfit: Urban Outfitters<br />

Cheshire Cat two-piece: Az Well<br />

Queen of Hearts dress: Lavish<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> dresses: Twice as Nice<br />

Location: Historic Drish House<br />

Photo by Prestley Bramlett<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [31]


“Curiouser<br />

and curiouser...”<br />

Photo by Emily Heath<br />

[32] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


Black choker: Lulu’s<br />

Photo by Emily Heath Photo by Sarah Westmoreland<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [33]


Photo by Prestley Bramlett<br />

[34] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


“Have I gone mad?”<br />

“I’m afraid so.<br />

You’re entirely bonkers.<br />

But I’ll tell you a secret:<br />

All the best people are.”<br />

Photo by Prestley Bramlett<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [35]<br />

Photo by Sarah Westmoreland


Photo by Emily Heath<br />

[36] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


Spotted dress: Twice as Nice<br />

Black and gold dress: Az Well<br />

Long blue dress: Twice as Nice<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [37]<br />

Photo by Sarah Westmoreland


“Imagination is the only weapon<br />

in the war against reality.”<br />

Photo by Emily Heath<br />

[38] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


Photo by Emily Heath<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [39]<br />

Photo by Prestley Bramlett


VICTIM<br />

TURNED<br />

VICTORIOUS<br />

One woman’s story of sex trafficking<br />

and the redemption that followed<br />

[40] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

By Claire Turner


Swaying trees in the springtime,<br />

sun flickered past the window<br />

as 19-year-old Kathy Jackson<br />

sat in the back seat of her friends’ car,<br />

on her way to the 1981 Chicago Jazz<br />

Festival. Her friends sat in the front,<br />

asking her questions like they always<br />

did: What are your goals in life? What<br />

is your family like? What’s your pet<br />

peeve? Would you ever like to travel the<br />

world? What are you good at?<br />

Of course, she always answered happily,<br />

just wanting to fit in for her second<br />

year of school at Tufts University<br />

in Medford, Massachusetts, where she<br />

had a full scholarship for an undecided<br />

major. Though she was a good student,<br />

she still loved to have fun with<br />

her friends, and the music festival was<br />

a perfect opportunity.<br />

When they arrived at the hotel,<br />

Kathy put her bag in a bedroom and<br />

started to unpack her schoolwork. She<br />

had a paper with a due date that was<br />

rapidly approaching, and was intending<br />

to work on it a bit until her friend<br />

walked in and invited her to lunch at a<br />

buddy’s house nearby.<br />

“I think I’ll work on my report instead,”<br />

Kathy told him. “The festival<br />

starts tomorrow. I probably won’t<br />

get much done then and it’s due<br />

next week.”<br />

“It’ll only be a couple of hours,” he<br />

said. “It’ll be fun.”<br />

Trusting, she went. Within five minutes<br />

of walking through the front door,<br />

she was beaten, berated and her clothes<br />

were ripped from her body. She was<br />

taken to a back room where she was<br />

tied down and then repeatedly raped.<br />

That was the beginning of Kathy’s<br />

32 years as a victim of sex trafficking.<br />

According to the International Labour<br />

Organization, Kathy is one of<br />

over 20 million women worldwide who<br />

are sold into sex slavery. There are<br />

only five U.S. states she has never had<br />

an extended stay in, and only two continents<br />

she has never been on.<br />

Kathy believes she was held captive<br />

in a room in Chicago for three weeks,<br />

but there was no way for her to be sure.<br />

While she was there, she was forcibly<br />

given drugs and was left to deal with<br />

a subsequent heroin addiction and a<br />

dependence on her ever-changing and<br />

temperamental handlers. Some managers<br />

were better than others, but none<br />

of them would let her go.<br />

“You’re always on edge,” Kathy said.<br />

“Even if you get to a ‘good’ house,<br />

where they’re not beating you every<br />

day, they’re not yelling at you or putting<br />

you with a John [client] who can<br />

do pretty much anything to you with<br />

some serious damage.”<br />

Men and women alike would pay high<br />

prices for the smallest of sexual tasks.<br />

According to Kathy, a typical workday<br />

would bring in around $10,000, with<br />

up to $23,000 on holidays, sometimes<br />

from just one person.<br />

To achieve this exceeding level of income,<br />

Kathy was pretty well-treated,<br />

as far as sex trafficking victims go.<br />

She was smart, up-to-date with the<br />

goings-on of the world and a beautiful<br />

young woman with youthful dark<br />

skin and sleek black hair. Each morning,<br />

she had a team of people styling<br />

her clothes, hair and makeup from the<br />

bedroom of whichever luxury hotel she<br />

was forced into.<br />

For her handlers, money was their<br />

only focus and the well-being of the<br />

girls was nowhere on their mind. At<br />

first, Kathy tried to bond with the other<br />

victims around her, but they were<br />

never there long. She learned that she<br />

couldn’t trust anyone, which is partially<br />

why victims of human trafficking<br />

never ask for help.<br />

Over time, Kathy realized those who<br />

controlled her were controlled, too.<br />

“The bad part of it, looking back, is<br />

these people that pay for this are sicker<br />

than the handlers,” she said. “Because<br />

they go back to their lives, and they act<br />

like it never happened. But then, they<br />

want it again, and again, and they’re<br />

never persecuted. So when you see on<br />

the news they’re showing the mugshots,<br />

they think they’ve caught them<br />

For her<br />

handlers,<br />

money was<br />

their only<br />

focus and the<br />

well-being of<br />

the girls was<br />

nowhere on<br />

their mind.<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [41]


… they’re not the bad guys, they’re the<br />

victims. I want to see more of the people<br />

that are actually paying for this,<br />

because if they’re prosecuted, I bet you<br />

the people that have wives and children<br />

– and most of them do – would<br />

second-guess about this.”<br />

Kathy’s road to freedom began amid<br />

the astronomical domes and golden<br />

sculptures of Caesar’s Palace in Las<br />

Vegas, Nevada, following sudden heart<br />

failure. Soon she was in the hospital,<br />

and her doctor noticed something<br />

unusual about her interactions with<br />

her handler. After he left, the doctor<br />

asked Kathy a few questions and<br />

next thing she knew she was telling<br />

him everything.<br />

That doctor’s care changed Kathy’s<br />

whole life. He erased her identity from<br />

the hospital and transferred her to Orlando,<br />

Florida, where she met a chaplain<br />

and told her story. The Well House<br />

in Birmingham, Ala., was found, a safe<br />

place for women who are victims of sex<br />

trafficking and prostitution.<br />

When Kathy arrived by bus<br />

to the Well House she had nothing:<br />

no possessions, no identification,<br />

no idea of what she was<br />

walking into. However, after a<br />

warm welcome from a mentor<br />

and an anxious night in a bunk<br />

bed above a stranger, Kathy began<br />

to feel safe and appreciated<br />

by the people surrounding her<br />

at the Well House.<br />

<strong>No</strong>w, Kathy is 54, living independently,<br />

going back to<br />

school for communications and<br />

working as a lead designer in<br />

a flower shop. The Well House<br />

supported her in all financial<br />

needs, any necessary therapy<br />

and the word of God. The Well<br />

[42] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

House is always accepting volunteers<br />

as well as taking monetary and material<br />

donations, from soap to over-thecounter<br />

medication and bed sheets to<br />

light bulbs, to help women like Kathy<br />

get back on their feet.<br />

Kathy isn’t afraid of anyone from her<br />

past finding her, because she knows<br />

they are intelligent but incredibly lazy.<br />

Instead, she wants to be the one who<br />

goes back and looks for them, wanting<br />

to try and save the other victims from<br />

their handlers and their clients.<br />

“Human trafficking is the one<br />

drug that never gives out until you<br />

die,” she said. “I’ve seen it time and<br />

time again … It never surprises me,<br />

what people will go to for their own<br />

selfish gain.”<br />

Though Kathy is more familiar with<br />

the characteristics of sex trafficking<br />

victims, there are warning signs that<br />

everyone can spot. According to the<br />

Nita Belles, author of human trafficking<br />

book In Our Backyard, victims<br />

have a nomadic attitude where they<br />

cannot identify their current location<br />

or travel plans, owns little to no personal<br />

belongings, shows physical or behavioral<br />

signs of abuse or malnourishment,<br />

or quickly responds to the call<br />

of another.<br />

Handlers typically target vulnerable<br />

or suffering people, enticing them with<br />

promises of love or success. The Well<br />

House website states traffickers “understand<br />

the economic motivations and<br />

psychological exploitation that will entice<br />

a person to leave her family.”<br />

Safe homes like the Well House offer<br />

rescue and shelter programs for<br />

victims of human trafficking, like<br />

Kathy. Throughout her 32 years of<br />

abuse, Kathy closed her eyes and<br />

saw only her past. <strong>No</strong>w, she said that<br />

with the grace of God and through<br />

the Well House graduation program,<br />

she sees only peace, safety and people<br />

around her that she can continuously<br />

count on. *


LOTS OF<br />

FUR AND<br />

A LITTLE<br />

FAITH<br />

A [tail] of animals helping people<br />

and people helping animals<br />

By Maddy Ard<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [43]


People need animals, plain<br />

and simple. Anyone who has<br />

ever had a family pet knows<br />

this. Cat, dog or canary,<br />

pets are a source of comfort<br />

and comic relief when the world gets a<br />

bit too big and bad.<br />

A 2011 study conducted by psychologists<br />

at The University of Miami and<br />

St. Louis University found the benefits<br />

of having a non-human companion go<br />

beyond a laugh or a cuddle here and<br />

there. This study, which was backed by<br />

the American Psychological Association,<br />

concluded that spending regular<br />

time with a fuzzy counterpart or two<br />

boosts self-esteem, encourages physical<br />

fitness, reduces feelings of loneliness<br />

and even increases focus.<br />

But maybe you, like me, simply can’t<br />

own a cat or dog right now. As much as<br />

I would love to welcome a kitten into<br />

my home this very afternoon, my home,<br />

like many student residences, happens<br />

to have a very, very strict no-pet policy.<br />

Past that, many college students are<br />

not financially able to take on a pet.<br />

Pet food and vet trips get pretty expensive<br />

pretty fast. Couple this with the<br />

instability that comes with constantly<br />

shifting class and social schedules,<br />

and you could have what we see far<br />

more often than any of us like: posts on<br />

the Alabama Student Ticket Exchange<br />

Facebook page begging anyone to take<br />

a pet adopted on a whim.<br />

<strong>No</strong>w, that’s not to say no college student<br />

should own a pet. For some all the<br />

stars align, and they find themselves<br />

in the perfect situation to provide an<br />

animal with all the love and care it<br />

requires. But for those, like me, who<br />

cannot, there is a solution.<br />

Just like people need animals, animal<br />

shelters need people. Unfortunately,<br />

there is no shortage of stray cats<br />

and dogs being found and dropped off<br />

at shelters across the country. According<br />

to the ASPCA, 7.6 million companion<br />

animals – mostly cats and dogs<br />

– enter American animal shelters each<br />

year. Only about 2.7 million of these<br />

animals are adopted each year. You see<br />

the issue.<br />

With more animals coming in than<br />

being adopted from shelters each year,<br />

shelters like the Humane Society of<br />

[44] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

Photos by Ramsey Griffin


West Alabama here in Tuscaloosa are<br />

in dire need of volunteers to ensure<br />

their growing populations receive optimal<br />

care.<br />

The Humane Society of West Alabama,<br />

founded in 1971, is the longest<br />

standing animal rescue in Tuscaloosa.<br />

This no-kill, all-volunteer<br />

organization is focused on providing<br />

shelter to homeless animals in the<br />

Tuscaloosa-area and helping them find<br />

forever homes.<br />

The organization’s president, Anita<br />

Smelley, runs the organization’s Cat<br />

House in <strong>No</strong>rthport, Alabama. You<br />

read right, Cat House. It’s exactly what<br />

it sounds like: a literal house owned by<br />

the Humane Society that currently<br />

houses 32 cats of all ages. Smelley said<br />

on average five or six of these cats are<br />

adopted each month, but numbers are<br />

never down for long.<br />

Each room of the house is designated<br />

to a different feline age group: the<br />

kitten room, the young adult room and<br />

the quiet room for older, more reserved<br />

residents. The young adult cats, ranging<br />

in age from 6 months to 5 years<br />

old, are known as the Wal-Mart Greeters,<br />

as they occupy the front room of<br />

the house and are generally more social.<br />

The house also features a screened<br />

in porch so the kitties can enjoy some<br />

fresh air.<br />

Smelley said she needs volunteers at<br />

the Cat House for two reasons: to clean<br />

the house and love the cats.<br />

Smelley said many volunteers call<br />

the shelter their<br />

“happy place,” a<br />

place where they<br />

can get their mind<br />

off of the world.<br />

One volunteer, an<br />

elderly man fighting<br />

prostate cancer,<br />

volunteers at<br />

the Cat House the<br />

day after his chemotherapy<br />

treatment<br />

each week.<br />

“<strong>No</strong>t only are<br />

the volunteers helping, they’re getting<br />

a lot of feel-good out of it, too,” Smelley<br />

said. “If I’m ever missing a volunteer,<br />

I can usually find them sitting on the<br />

floor somewhere with kittens all over<br />

them, just smiling.”<br />

Smelley said volunteering is immensely<br />

beneficial to the cats at the<br />

shelter. Through the efforts of volunteers,<br />

the cats are groomed and kept in<br />

a safe, clean environment. Having different<br />

people around all the time helps<br />

socialize the cats, which Smelley said<br />

helps them get adopted quickly.<br />

“A cat that goes and hides when a<br />

stranger comes to pet them is not likely<br />

to get adopted,” Smelley said. “But it’s<br />

so rewarding to watch a shy cat come<br />

out of his shell with the volunteers.”<br />

The best things in life are free, and<br />

the happiness that comes from giving<br />

little fuzzies some TLC is no exception.<br />

Smelley joked that volunteering is kind<br />

of like owning a ton of pets and never<br />

having to pay for them. Students who<br />

can’t adopt right now, we’re looking<br />

at you.<br />

Catie Lee Bruni, a junior majoring<br />

in biology and art at The University of<br />

Alabama, said she began volunteering<br />

at the Cat House because she loves cats<br />

and could not have one of her own at<br />

the time. Bruni said she still looks forward<br />

every week to her time at the Cat<br />

House one year after starting there.<br />

“On a typical day, I get there and<br />

am immediately surrounded by meows,”<br />

Bruni said. “So I have to give<br />

The best things in life<br />

are free, and the<br />

happiness that<br />

comes from giving<br />

little fuzzies some<br />

TLC is no exception.<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [45]


them their oh-hello-yes-pet-me time<br />

right away.”<br />

Bruni said her duties include cleaning<br />

the different rooms of the shelter.<br />

This entails sweeping, mopping, scoop-<br />

[46] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

ing litter boxes, de-furring climbing<br />

toys and beds, washing and refilling<br />

dishes and cleaning surfaces. However,<br />

Bruni said the kitties never leave<br />

her side, and a while she cleans she is<br />

still constantly showing these cats love.<br />

“It doesn’t actually feel like work,”<br />

Bruni said. “It’s a win-win situation<br />

because it’s relaxing for me when life<br />

gets crazy, and the cats get a clean<br />

room and some love.”<br />

I know we aren’t all cat people. Fear<br />

not, dog-lovers everywhere. You have<br />

options, too. The Humane Society,<br />

as well as many other rescue organizations<br />

in the area, is brimming with<br />

dogs of all strides of life needing some<br />

love and care.<br />

One such organization is the Tuscaloosa<br />

Metro Animal Shelter. Made<br />

popular among college students for its<br />

“Happy Hour” weekly volunteering<br />

opportunities, anyone who has been<br />

to this shelter knows that they need<br />

as many hands as possible to ensure<br />

the health and happiness of their large<br />

canine population.<br />

Mary Calhoun is volunteer coordinator<br />

for the Tuscaloosa Metro Animal<br />

Shelter. She, like Smelley, said volunteers<br />

are vital to amping up the dogs’<br />

adoptability.<br />

“People look at these animals, and<br />

they think one of two things,” Calhoun<br />

said. “They think, ‘Oh, how cute’ or<br />

they think, ‘Oh, how sad.’ ”<br />

She said the point of her volunteers<br />

is to make sure no one looks at these<br />

animals as creatures to be pitied. By<br />

making sure potential adopters see a<br />

happy, healthy, friendly pup, volunteers<br />

are saving these animals’ lives.<br />

Calhoun said volunteering isn’t always<br />

pretty. It isn’t always holding<br />

wiggly puppies or a literal walk in the<br />

dog park. Most of the time it’s scrubbing<br />

and washing and scrubbing<br />

again, but it’s that elbow grease that<br />

ensures the animals are shown in their<br />

best light and adopted.<br />

“When we keep those dogs and their<br />

cages clean, people don’t walk by and<br />

see a dirty thing,” Calhoun said. “They<br />

see the animal. It’s an enormously big<br />

deal.”<br />

Calhoun said volunteering once in a<br />

while is nice, but what these organi-


People look at<br />

these animals, and<br />

they think one<br />

of two things:<br />

“Oh, how cute” or<br />

“Oh, how sad.”<br />

zations need are committed, regular<br />

partners who are willing to take time<br />

out of each week to lend a hand. Taking<br />

one dog out on one walk one time<br />

helps that dog that day, but neither you<br />

nor that dog feel the lasting benefits<br />

that stem from a sustained relationship<br />

with an animal shelter.<br />

Being near these animals, canine or<br />

feline, and forming trusted relationships<br />

with them is good for you just<br />

like it’s good for them. In a report<br />

published by Frontiers in Psychology,<br />

psychologists concluded that spending<br />

regular time in contact with a cat<br />

or dog increased trustworthiness, reduced<br />

aggression, promoted positive<br />

mood and reduced stress, along with<br />

blood pressure and heart rate.<br />

<strong>No</strong>t to mention, volunteering at animal<br />

shelter by default puts you in contact<br />

with a group of people who share<br />

at least one common interest – animals.<br />

So while you’re in this stress-relieving,<br />

positivity-inducing atmosphere, you’re<br />

also making connection with others<br />

who care about the same things you<br />

do. And the animals get used to people<br />

and potentially find forever homes.<br />

That’s a win-win if I’ve ever seen one.<br />

Animal shelters need people. People<br />

need animals. Plain and simple. *<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [47]


[48] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


CELE-<br />

BRAT-<br />

ING<br />

COLOR<br />

Recognizing the importance and<br />

embracement of Black History Month<br />

By Jada Culver<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [49]


Black History Month, or<br />

National African-American<br />

History Month, annually<br />

celebrates the excellence and<br />

achievements by black Americans<br />

in U.S. history. The celebration’s<br />

inception began in 1969 when leaders<br />

of the Black United Students at<br />

Kent State University proposed the<br />

celebration of black history transcend<br />

from Negro History Week into a full<br />

month’s celebration. After President<br />

Gerald Ford advocated that the<br />

American people “seize the opportunity<br />

to honor the too-often neglected<br />

accomplishments of black Americans,”<br />

Black History Month became an<br />

officially recognized celebration in<br />

1976. Today, in 2017, I join the nation<br />

in proudly celebrating the 41st Black<br />

[50] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

History Month, welcomed with great<br />

respect and gratitude for every endeavor<br />

and grand accomplishment achieved<br />

by an African-American.<br />

<strong>No</strong>w, it would be unfair to mention<br />

the cheerful enjoyment of Black History<br />

Month and completely ignore the<br />

recent frustrations myself and many<br />

African-Americans feel due to numerous<br />

tragic and unjust occurrences<br />

upsetting the black community. When<br />

I turn on the television and scroll<br />

through Facebook, I see the present<br />

neglect and worry people of color feel<br />

in today’s society. Yet, by talking with<br />

an African-American friend or even<br />

wisely immersing one’s self into the<br />

black community today, you would find<br />

that, despite the discouragement projected<br />

through media, there exists a<br />

wave of hope and peace; remembrance<br />

and celebration; courage and resilience;<br />

love and unity. Black History<br />

Month is a special time to reflect and<br />

remember those in our country who’ve<br />

overcome adversity and remained<br />

steadfast to achieve what was once<br />

withheld from them and often challenged<br />

today: freedom to be who<br />

they were created to be. Hear these<br />

voices from people alike in humanity<br />

but diverse in skin color as they<br />

reflect on their thoughts about Black<br />

History Month.<br />

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO<br />

CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY?<br />

“I think to celebrate black history is<br />

to acknowledge, especially in America,<br />

the inequality and how so many people<br />

have done so many great things to<br />

overcome that inequality,” said Garrison<br />

Pugh, 21. “Even though today<br />

[racial equality] is not where it needs<br />

to be, there’s still great people who are<br />

working to overcome that.”<br />

“Celebrating black history is something<br />

that I do every day. It is not<br />

something that I only recognize in the<br />

month of February,” said Imani Manley,<br />

21. “I think it is important to cel-


ebrate my history and my culture in a<br />

world that does not always value it. It<br />

is something that has been instilled in<br />

me since birth, something that I believe<br />

will always be worth fighting for. If we<br />

don’t celebrate ourselves, who will?”<br />

Terrence Curry, 22, said, “[To me<br />

it] means celebrating my heritage, celebrating<br />

growth as an African American,<br />

remembering those that have<br />

paved a way for me to be where I am.”<br />

As a woman of mixed race, both<br />

Caucasian and African-American, it’s<br />

important for me to remember<br />

where a part of me<br />

comes from. To me, black<br />

history is a beautiful story<br />

of courage, integrity, faith<br />

and triumph. There is so<br />

much that is unwritten,<br />

and I can’t wait to see what<br />

is further accomplished in<br />

my lifetime.<br />

NOTABLE AFRICAN-<br />

AMERICAN FIGURES<br />

Black History Month is a time to reflect<br />

on those who have bravely challenged<br />

the wrongful perspective and<br />

unfair treatment of African-Americans<br />

in the U.S. For each individual<br />

there’s a notable African-American<br />

figure: Martin Luther King, Barack<br />

and Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey,<br />

Harriet Tubman. Each broke<br />

barriers, created opportunities and<br />

ultimately inspired millions of people<br />

from how they’ve made a difference for<br />

African-Americans.<br />

From basketball stars to fashion<br />

designers, there is a figure who<br />

inspires everyone.<br />

“For me, it’s currently LeBron<br />

James,” said Patrick Stanford, 21.<br />

“Mostly because of what his message<br />

is. He’s a kid that grew up in the projects<br />

and he understands the system<br />

and how the system doesn’t promote<br />

success for those kids. Yet, he broke<br />

that mold. He sets a precedent and a<br />

standard that other African-American<br />

males can look up to.”<br />

“Overall I would definitely have to<br />

say Michelle Obama,” Manley said.<br />

“Growing up, and playing with all my<br />

dolls I never would have thought that<br />

my First Lady would look like me. She<br />

has so much wisdom, education and<br />

class. She is a woman that will always<br />

be respected in my book.<br />

“Professionally, Tracy Reese is an<br />

African-American figure that I admire.<br />

I plan to enter the fashion industry<br />

one day, and it warms my heart to<br />

know that there is a designer out there<br />

To me, black history<br />

is a beautiful story<br />

of courage, integrity,<br />

faith and triumph.<br />

with the same motive that I have: to<br />

make women feel beautiful. The fashion<br />

industry can be so white- washed<br />

and it’s nice to know that a woman like<br />

that has opened so many doors for me.”<br />

Curry said Martin Luther King inspired<br />

him, “because of his ability to<br />

assist a major involvement in the Civil<br />

Rights movement. This is a major piece<br />

of history that connects to many events<br />

that allows for me to attend the University,<br />

to be able to sit in classes with a<br />

diverse set of folks, for everyone to have<br />

equal opportunities and to learn at the<br />

same capacity.”<br />

HEAR US:<br />

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW<br />

“I don’t want people to over-analyze<br />

having a black friend and having conversation<br />

about topics concerning the<br />

black community,” said Kennedy Studdard,<br />

22. “And I don’t want people to<br />

always assume I’m bitter and angry.<br />

<strong>No</strong>t everyone is comfortable with having<br />

those raw conversations, but you<br />

need to be comfortable with meeting<br />

[and talking with] other people who<br />

look like you and don’t look like you.”<br />

“As an African-American woman,<br />

I would love for people to realize how<br />

unappreciated and driven we are,” said<br />

Manley. “It is hard to be a black person,<br />

but it can be argued that it is even<br />

harder to be a black woman.”<br />

In the history of black women within<br />

the U.S., we’ve seen this issue occur<br />

quite often — especially in areas of<br />

politics, entertainment and positions<br />

of authority.<br />

“We are constantly cast aside and<br />

prejudged by everyone, including<br />

black men from<br />

time to time,” Manley<br />

continued. “From our<br />

great-grandmothers to<br />

us, we constantly have the<br />

weight of the world on our<br />

backs, alongside this natural<br />

drive to succeed. We<br />

do all we can as students,<br />

daughters, mothers and<br />

professionals, and sometimes it seems<br />

that only a few of us are recognized.<br />

With all that is going on in this country,<br />

it is important for our voices to be<br />

heard as well.”<br />

“As an African-American man, I<br />

want everyone to know that people of<br />

color are more than just their skin tone<br />

— they are human, they are educated<br />

and are well deserving of opportunities,”<br />

said Curry. “We just want to<br />

grow and develop like the next person.<br />

Impressions of African-Americans<br />

that are portrayed in the media and<br />

public eye are simply not true on the<br />

entire race.”<br />

This Black History Month, take the<br />

time to research the powerful and inspiring<br />

movement that has compelled<br />

our nation to set a full month aside to<br />

celebrate. Hear the voices of the proud<br />

and spirited, remember our past and<br />

the triumphs that have occurred for<br />

the African-American community, and<br />

strive to continue and advance the celebration<br />

of our likeness and difference<br />

as Americans of the United States. *<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [51]


GHOST<br />

STORIES<br />

By Sam West<br />

You’ve swiped right and a<br />

match has been made. But<br />

something is … off. Perhaps<br />

he’s too forward. Perhaps he’s too<br />

shy. Perhaps he’s an unironic fan of<br />

Smashmouth with an abiding love for<br />

erotic puppetry. Whatever the reason,<br />

though you might have been virtually<br />

connected, there’s no spark. So what<br />

do you do?<br />

In most cases, the answer seems to<br />

be: ignore him. It used to be that to<br />

end a potential romantic link, you’d<br />

have to have a meaningful conversation<br />

with someone, or at least say you<br />

weren’t interested in dating. But in<br />

the age of Tinder, Bumble and other<br />

dating apps, it’s much more expedient<br />

to just disappear. Hence, “ghosting,” a<br />

neologism for abandoning a potential<br />

partner and ignoring their texts, calls<br />

and notifications.<br />

This might seem cruel, or crazy, or<br />

deeply symbolic of the shallowness of<br />

the millennial generation. (Cue the<br />

thinkpieces.) However, in the world of<br />

online and app-based dating—which<br />

is incredibly young—no one is really<br />

sure about what’s right and wrong. It’s<br />

like Wild West out there.<br />

“Since it’s so new, there’s not a lot of<br />

rules of kind of what people expect,”<br />

said Mo Quinn, a senior majoring in<br />

marketing at The University of Alabama.<br />

“The rules of engagement aren’t<br />

super defined ... one person might<br />

think it’s totally appropriate to send<br />

you this message on Tinder, and you<br />

might find that really creepy and forward.<br />

I think there’s some hurdles<br />

that people are still getting past with<br />

online dating.”<br />

[52] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

ghost·ing<br />

the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by<br />

suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.<br />

Regular, face-to-face dating has<br />

all sorts of little, informal guidelines<br />

that have developed over many years.<br />

<strong>No</strong>t everyone follows them, but they’ve<br />

probably heard them. Three dates<br />

is the threshold for sex. When you’re<br />

getting over a guy (or girl), you can<br />

be miserable one day for every month<br />

you’ve been together. These social cues<br />

don’t exist for dating apps — at least<br />

not until now.<br />

I talked to a few women about their<br />

experiences with apps, with the goal<br />

in mind of creating an official rule of<br />

when it was and was not okay to jettison<br />

a potential romantic partner.<br />

But first, I had to figure out what it<br />

was like to be on the receiving end of a<br />

swift breakup.<br />

LA REGLE D’JEU<br />

I’ve used Tinder before, and the main<br />

thing I remember is that it’s basically<br />

a numbers game: you throw out a lot<br />

of “hey” messages, you hear back from<br />

a few of people, and you have a decent<br />

conversation with a very small group.<br />

Once you start going on dates, things<br />

can get dicey.<br />

Here’s a story that’s similar to what<br />

probably thousands of Millennial men<br />

and women have experienced. Susanna<br />

Kaletski met a guy on an app, they<br />

decided to go out on a date, and it was<br />

… meh. <strong>No</strong>t bad, not great. He later<br />

didn’t return her texts or calls. And<br />

apparently, she didn’t mind.<br />

“I guess if I had really liked him, it<br />

probably would have made me feel really<br />

bad, but because I wasn’t super into<br />

him, I was fine,” said Kaletski, a UA<br />

senior majoring in English.<br />

Getting to know someone on a good<br />

date is one of the most enjoyable experiences<br />

there is; a disastrous date is<br />

at least a fun story to tell. But no one<br />

wants a mediocre experience. So for<br />

Kalteski, ghosting is an expected part<br />

of using Tinder, and a “no harm, no<br />

foul” experience.<br />

“I think for the most part, it’s becoming<br />

a normal thing,” she said. “I<br />

feel like more often than not it’s not<br />

completely mutual, but people understand<br />

why it happens.”<br />

Going into the writing process of this<br />

article, I couldn’t recall whether I had<br />

ever been ghosted. But then I remembered<br />

a few times in my Tinder experience<br />

when women abruptly ceased<br />

communication with me for whatever<br />

reason. It didn’t feel good, but apparently<br />

it wasn’t scarring enough for me<br />

to recall months later. It’s just part of<br />

the game.<br />

WHEN GHOSTING IS GOOD<br />

Maybe getting ghosted isn’t so bad,<br />

but what’s the benefit of it? Why just<br />

ditch someone when you could have a<br />

conversation with them?<br />

Quinn said she often ghosted guys<br />

she just wasn’t into, but she recounted<br />

one case in which she broke off contact<br />

with a particularly aggressive pursuer.<br />

When talking to people for this arti-


cle, I heard a few stories that made me<br />

suspect that ghosting can actually be<br />

a useful tool for women when they use<br />

apps like Tinder.<br />

Avery Birch, senior, had a story that<br />

turned me, a ghosting victim, into a<br />

ghosting apologist. While interning at<br />

a courthouse, she went on a date with a<br />

guy who attended her rival high school.<br />

It went okay, but the next day at her job,<br />

she found his name in the worst possible<br />

place: on that day’s court docket,<br />

accused of a litany of misdeeds.<br />

“I looked at all of his charges and I<br />

was just like ‘oh, my God,’” she said.<br />

“I had no idea that guy was like that<br />

at all. Totally different front that he<br />

put on.”<br />

Luckily, her possibly-felonious date<br />

didn’t show up. But she took a picture<br />

of that day’s court agenda, and sent it<br />

to him with the caption “nice.” Then<br />

she ghosted.<br />

Clearly this was the right thing to do.<br />

As a guy, I never got harassed using<br />

Tinder. But it’s a common experience<br />

for women, as is meeting less-than-reputable<br />

men. Because of this, I suspect<br />

that sometimes it’s not only necessary<br />

but good for girls to ditch dudes who<br />

are being rude or pushy.<br />

Birch said she got a few more texts<br />

from her possibly-criminal acquaintance.<br />

She thinks refusing to talk to<br />

him was the right thing to do, however.<br />

“Associating with him would not<br />

benefit me ... it would be more of a negative<br />

approach than a positive one,”<br />

she said. “I think that’s a good reason<br />

to ghost someone.”<br />

...as long as people can connect<br />

with the touch of an app, ditching<br />

weirdos will be a necessary evil.<br />

A REAL BREAKUP<br />

We’ve established that ghosting can<br />

be good in certain cases. But at what<br />

point does it become wrong? How serious<br />

does the relationship have to be<br />

before it’s no longer okay to just stop<br />

talking to someone? The women I<br />

spoke to were mixed.<br />

“I feel like if you guys have met up,<br />

or maybe if you’ve gone on a couple of<br />

dates or something, and then you realize<br />

it’s not really working, you should<br />

actually let that person know. ‘Okay,<br />

I just don’t see this going anywhere.’<br />

Something like that,” Quinn said.<br />

“But if you’ve really just been texting<br />

or messaging on Tinder, I don’t think<br />

it’s like—if you haven’t met face to<br />

face I don’t think it’s a big deal.”<br />

On the other hand, Kaletski said<br />

she felt that a formal breakup was<br />

only necessary in situations of a close<br />

friendship or a committed relationship.<br />

“I think in those kinds of situations,<br />

you do need to have a conversation<br />

with the person,” she said. “Which can<br />

be hard, because those are I guess the<br />

hardest kinds of conversations to have,<br />

but I think they’re also the most necessary<br />

to have so the other person will<br />

understand why you’re doing this.”<br />

So here’s my conclusion: after hearing<br />

the stories of women who experienced<br />

some of the worst of modern<br />

dating, I can say without a doubt an<br />

official ethical limit on ghosting: it’s<br />

wrong to ghost someone after two solo<br />

dates. If you have one bad face-toface<br />

experience, it’s okay to just drop<br />

the other person, but beyond that, you<br />

probably owe them at least an explanation,<br />

unless they’re really particularly<br />

nasty. And if you’ve been dating<br />

a while, a formal breakup is due. This<br />

is the new rule: you might call it “The<br />

Iron Law of Ghosting.”<br />

THOSE DAMN MILLENIALS<br />

This policy might seem shallow. A<br />

dating world in which people are allowed<br />

to drop each other like they<br />

never interacted could appear cruel to<br />

some. And perhaps the conveniences of<br />

modern dating do have setbacks.<br />

“I think it’s a real shame,” Birch<br />

said. “I want to live in our parent’s<br />

generation, when there wasn’t Instagram<br />

DMs or Facebook Direct Message,<br />

asking for your number and<br />

kind of just texting. It was more of a<br />

personal, you get to know them, they<br />

ask you to go out to dinner and you<br />

get to know them through dinner and<br />

being with them, not texting them asking<br />

them what they’re doing during<br />

the day.”<br />

<strong>No</strong>stalgia is fun, but like it or not,<br />

the Internet is here to stay. And as long<br />

as people can connect with the touch<br />

of an app, ditching weirdos will be a<br />

necessary evil. Though the old might<br />

shake their fist at the hedonist practices<br />

of the young, I actually don’t think<br />

ghosting is a new invention. After all,<br />

what is a “Dear John” letter but the<br />

most depressing form of interpersonal<br />

abandonment? And if Friends is any<br />

indication of historical fact, women in<br />

the 1990s spent a good bit of their time<br />

waiting by the phone for guys to return<br />

their call.<br />

If Millennial women are going to<br />

dive into the meat market that is virtual<br />

dating, they need the defense of<br />

ghosting. And after all, that guy with<br />

a bass fish in his profile picture probably<br />

wasn’t your soulmate, anyway. *<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [53]


GIRLS<br />

JUST<br />

WANNA<br />

HAVE<br />

FUNDAMENTAL<br />

RIGHTS<br />

Defining the modern feminist<br />

By Alexis Faire<br />

[54] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


Growing up, I always admired<br />

Oprah Winfrey. In fact, I wanted<br />

to be just like her. My friends in high<br />

school would call me “Oprah” as a<br />

nickname — not because I wanted to<br />

be a billionaire, not because I wanted<br />

to be famous and definitely not because<br />

I wanted to shout, “You get a car! You<br />

get a car! Everybody gets a car!” In my<br />

eyes, Oprah Winfrey was an example<br />

of the courageous and hard-working<br />

woman that I strived to become.<br />

She spent the first few years of<br />

her life in rural Mississippi with her<br />

grandmother while her single mother<br />

searched for work, according to The<br />

Academy of Achievement. After her<br />

mother found work, she soon moved<br />

out-of-state and because of this, her<br />

mother was absent most of the time.<br />

Due to her mother’s absence, Oprah<br />

was often left home alone and faced<br />

abuse from her male relatives from age<br />

nine to 13. She eventually left home<br />

and lived with her father in Tennessee.<br />

Although she faced living in poverty<br />

and mistreatment in the early years<br />

of her life, she continued to work hard,<br />

launched her career in journalism and<br />

eventually became the first and only<br />

multi-million-dollar black woman.<br />

“Women can do just as much, if<br />

not more, than men can – as proven<br />

throughout history with strong women,”<br />

said EJ Harrell, a junior majoring<br />

in interdisciplinary studies at The<br />

University of Alabama. “I mean, we<br />

see people like Michelle Obama today.<br />

We see Hillary Clinton. We see people<br />

that have progressed so far, and people<br />

still feel as though they are lesser. And<br />

that’s weird to me. I know my mom is<br />

a strong woman, so when I look at her<br />

like, ‘She does everything.’ How are<br />

you going to say that she can’t?”<br />

Oprah Winfrey has been one of<br />

many to fight for women’s rights and<br />

has maintained a strong persona as a<br />

woman in power. The idea of a strong<br />

woman who empowers other women<br />

and girls to fight for equal opportunities<br />

has always been a major factor<br />

in history. From women, such as Harriet<br />

Tubman, Gloria Steinem and the<br />

fictional character Rosie the Riveter,<br />

to today’s Michelle Obama, Malala<br />

Yousafzai and the fictional character<br />

Olivia Pope from Scandal, gender<br />

equality has been a hot-button topic<br />

within society.<br />

The Other F-word<br />

“Some people think negatively of<br />

feminists since they think of feminism<br />

as being anti-man, mean, ugly and so<br />

on, or they don’t think feminism is<br />

relevant anymore because women are<br />

already ‘equal,’” said Elise Wander, a<br />

law student at Yale University interested<br />

in public law. “Those people are<br />

misinformed, or they don’t reason how<br />

deeply invested they are in societal values<br />

and stereotypes.”<br />

When people hear the word “feminism,”<br />

they tend to either groan with<br />

frustration or attempt to avoid the conversation<br />

completely. Or maybe they’ll<br />

say something along the lines of, “I<br />

believe that women deserve equal opportunities,<br />

but I don’t identify as a<br />

feminist.” And that’s where the miscommunication<br />

begins.<br />

According to Merriam-Webster, feminism<br />

is defined as the theory of the<br />

political, economic and social equality<br />

of the sexes. The main idea of feminism<br />

is that everyone deserves equal<br />

opportunities despite a person’s gender.<br />

“That’s what feminism is,” said <strong>No</strong>ra<br />

Niedzielski-Eichner, a second-year law<br />

student at Yale University. “I don’t<br />

know what people think feminism is,<br />

like it’s some big secret cult or you<br />

know, ‘I haven’t made the secret handshake,<br />

so I’m not a feminist.’ If you<br />

think that women should get to be<br />

equal, if you think that we should have<br />

the same opportunities, regardless of<br />

what gender you’re born, then you’re<br />

a feminist.”<br />

Many seem to believe that the feminist<br />

movement strives to help women<br />

overpower men and to make it seem as<br />

though women deserve more than their<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [55]


male counterparts. A common myth,<br />

according to a study done by Villanova<br />

University, is that feminism only liberates<br />

women at the expense of men.<br />

This statement couldn’t be further<br />

from the truth, yet it is still something<br />

people choose to believe.<br />

“It [feminism] wasn’t built on the<br />

backbone of breaking down another<br />

gender or saying that someone is lesser<br />

than,” Harrell said. “Because that’s<br />

what they’re fighting against. That<br />

defeats the purpose, which is usually<br />

their argument.”<br />

“Waiting on the<br />

world to change…”<br />

Campaigns like the UN Women’s<br />

HeForShe encourages people of all<br />

identities to support gender equality<br />

and to unify the sexes. According to<br />

the HeForShe website, over 1.2 million<br />

people in the U.S. have committed to<br />

taking action to create a gender-equal<br />

world, and the U.S. is currently ranked<br />

second in HeForShe activity. The<br />

campaign gained popularity when actress<br />

and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador,<br />

Emma Watson, presented<br />

a speech about her journey into feminism<br />

and becoming an advocate for<br />

women’s rights.<br />

“I decided I was a feminist and this<br />

seemed uncomplicated to me,” Watson<br />

said in her 2014 speech. “But my recent<br />

research has shown me that feminism<br />

has become an unpopular word.<br />

Apparently, I am among the ranks of<br />

women whose expressions are seen as<br />

too strong, too aggressive, isolating,<br />

anti-men and unattractive. Why is the<br />

word such an uncomfortable one?”<br />

The HeForShe campaign is currently<br />

present with two institutions in the<br />

U.S. – Georgetown University and<br />

Stony Brook University – and has either<br />

a chancellor or president whom<br />

are participants for the initiative.<br />

Kendyl Clausen, a recent graduate<br />

from Georgetown University and a law<br />

student at Yale University, is a supporter<br />

of the movement.<br />

[56] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

“From what I understand, the movement<br />

is committed to encouraging men<br />

to support feminist causes as well,” she<br />

said. “One of the downfalls of feminist<br />

movements has been the ‘other-ing’ of<br />

men. The framing of the movement has<br />

often banded women together against<br />

men. This has led to things like the<br />

#notallmen movement in response to<br />

advocacy against sexual assault, etc.”<br />

She said the HeForShe movement<br />

seems like a good way to counter the<br />

negativity and to help the movement<br />

move forward.<br />

“All the women,<br />

who are independent…”<br />

The idea of a powerful woman<br />

comes with a long list of stereotypes.<br />

In Forbes’ The 10 Worst Stereotypes<br />

About Powerful Women, the number<br />

one cliché is possibly the most common:<br />

Ice Queen. Think along the lines of<br />

Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada,<br />

as the article mentioned, or maybe<br />

Sandra Bullock in The Proposal.<br />

Powerful women that are stereotyped<br />

as an ice queen are depicted as unapproachable,<br />

mean and show no emotion<br />

in the workplace.<br />

“Women in power in entertainment<br />

are often portrayed as cold and unemotional,”<br />

said Lisa McKinney, professor<br />

of accounting at The University<br />

of Alabama. “There is a partial truth<br />

in this portrayal in that women must<br />

be less emotional and must be more<br />

aggressive to succeed in the workplace.<br />

The workplace is a competitive<br />

environment; women have to be able to<br />

compete with the men. The workplace<br />

requires a clear head, an attention<br />

to facts, and an ability to steer away<br />

from drama.”<br />

Lindsay Macher, a UA senior majoring<br />

in chemical engineering and<br />

president of the Feminist Caucus, said<br />

she believes commenting on a woman’s<br />

emotions is a way to try to bring down<br />

a woman in power.<br />

“As far as emotions, I think that’s<br />

just an easy way to dismiss women,”<br />

she said. “… I think as a woman, if<br />

you’re in a position of power, you do<br />

kind of have to take an approach of<br />

either ‘I’m gonna be kind of cold and<br />

hard, so that I’m taken kinda seriously<br />

from the get go,’ or ‘I’m gonna try and<br />

be nice and be really pleasant.’”<br />

Despite the entertainment industry<br />

representing feminist ideals, the idea<br />

of strong and powerful women is often<br />

characterized in a negative light.<br />

The topic of powerful women can’t<br />

be discussed without bringing up the<br />

b-word. Over time, the connotation has<br />

changed, and depending on how it’s<br />

used, can either be a compliment or<br />

an insult.<br />

According to Merriam-Webster, the<br />

first definition of the word “bitch”<br />

means “the female of the dog or some<br />

other carnivorous mammals.” The second<br />

definition of the word comes with<br />

two parts and is listed as, “a lewd or<br />

immoral woman” followed by “a malicious,<br />

spiteful or overbearing woman –<br />

sometimes used as a generalized term<br />

of abuse.”<br />

When a powerful woman knows what<br />

she wants, works hard to get it and<br />

doesn’t need help from a man, that’s<br />

when people want to categorize her as<br />

a bitch. In a 2008 Saturday Night Live<br />

skit, Tina Fey discussed Hillary Clinton’s<br />

first campaign run for president.<br />

Tina stated that it bothered her when<br />

people called Hillary a bitch, which<br />

led Tina to coin the phrase, “Bitches<br />

get stuff done.” To be honest, this is<br />

a phrase I live by every day. Women<br />

have embraced phrases like this and<br />

the word as a compliment to show that<br />

they’re making a positive impact.<br />

While the word may be making a<br />

transformation as time continues, it<br />

still tends to carry a negative connotation<br />

when depicting women in the entertainment<br />

industry — both fictional<br />

and real.<br />

“… I also have an issue [on how they<br />

tend] to make the bitchiness more appealing,”<br />

Macher said. “… They’ll kinda<br />

label them as sexy, and they’ll just


sexualize them. I don’t think that you<br />

have to be beautiful, smart, skinny,<br />

etc. to be a strong woman in power.”<br />

Women in entertainment, despite<br />

their accomplishments or their journey,<br />

are always centered around appearance.<br />

Whether it’s about her<br />

outfit, her sex life (or lack thereof) or<br />

even how she landed the position she<br />

currently has, a woman’s looks always<br />

seem to be the topic of conversation.<br />

“It bothers me that women in power<br />

necessarily need to be super attractive<br />

and fit a certain body image mold –<br />

often that’s thin, white, very dressed<br />

up,” said Marissa Medine, a thirdyear<br />

law student at Yale University<br />

interested in family law. “One of the<br />

more ridiculous [examples] I think of<br />

is the high-powered surgeon, doctor<br />

who’s worked an 18-hour shift and still<br />

has impeccable makeup and is wearing<br />

stiletto pumps in the middle of<br />

the hospital.”<br />

“Work, work, work,<br />

work, work, work…”<br />

According to the American Association<br />

of University Women (AAUW),<br />

working women in 2015 received 80<br />

percent of what working men earned,<br />

which means there’s a gap of 20 percent.<br />

That’s not even including race,<br />

ethnicity and age. AAUW stated that<br />

although pay for women has drastically<br />

increased since 1960, women are<br />

expected to reach pay equity with men<br />

by 2059.<br />

“One aspect of the wage gap that I<br />

think doesn’t get enough attention is<br />

that historically female-dominated<br />

fields are paid way less, and are considered<br />

way less prestigious, than their<br />

male counterparts,” Wander said.<br />

“Public school teachers are paid less<br />

than professors, nurses are paid less<br />

than doctors, etc.”<br />

Despite the current challenges, Clausen<br />

said there are more ways to help<br />

women succeed today than there have<br />

been before.<br />

“Women still face significant challenges,<br />

especially in male-dominated<br />

fields, but America is way more aware<br />

of these challenges than ever before,”<br />

she said. “There are women’s groups<br />

dedicated to pairing women up to help<br />

them network and succeed. There are<br />

books about how women can help each<br />

other succeed. There are men who are<br />

actively helping women get ahead.”<br />

The year 2016 brought another presidential<br />

election. Hillary Clinton ran<br />

a campaign yet again and earned the<br />

presidential nominee for the Democratic<br />

Party. She ran on a platform<br />

that supported ideas such as gender<br />

equality, climate change, racial justice,<br />

LGBT rights, etc. For months,<br />

polls slated her to be the first female<br />

president of the United States. Ultimately,<br />

she lost to her opponent, now<br />

President-elect Donald Trump.<br />

“I was very saddened by the fact<br />

that we would not have a first female<br />

president,” Medine said. “I still remember<br />

the day of the election. I was<br />

home, looking at this book [from] when<br />

I was little called First Ladies: Women<br />

Who Called the White House Home,<br />

and I loved it since I was little. And<br />

I remember thinking that morning,<br />

‘Wow, we could really have a woman to<br />

call the White House home and who’s<br />

not a First Lady.’ And how incredible<br />

that would be to talk to my children<br />

about that and see this historical moment<br />

and see this book as a historical<br />

artifact and realize the progress we<br />

have made.”<br />

Although Hillary Clinton did not win<br />

the 2016 election and with the progress<br />

the country has made so far, Niedzielski-Eichner<br />

said she believes the U.S.<br />

will have a female president one day.<br />

“Absolutely, without a question,” she<br />

said. “I can’t believe it’s taken us as<br />

long as it has, but we absolutely will.<br />

We’ll get there.” *<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [57]


[58] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


BEYOND<br />

THE<br />

BARRIER<br />

Pushing against heteronormativity:<br />

living in the LGBTQ community<br />

By Elizabeth Elkin<br />

Editor’s note: Finn is a pseudonym<br />

for a University of Alabama student<br />

who requested anonymity.<br />

Finn has been transgender forever.<br />

He didn’t have a word for it until the<br />

beginning of middle school. In sixth<br />

or seventh grade, he thought to himself,<br />

“Oh, that might be it. I might<br />

be trans.”<br />

Freshman year of high school, he became<br />

more certain.<br />

“There was kind of a progressive level<br />

of ‘I know, that might be a thing,’<br />

and then, ‘Oh, there’s a word that actually<br />

describes me,’ ” he said.<br />

Sometime around his junior year of<br />

high school, Finn spoke with his mother<br />

about it. At the time, his friends and<br />

family knew him as a female. He did<br />

not come out to the rest of his family<br />

until sophomore year of college.<br />

Finn grew up in Alabama. In high<br />

school, everyone chose to attend the<br />

state university, who gave him scholarship<br />

money. Going there just felt like<br />

the thing to do. If he could remake that<br />

decision, Finn would be somewhere<br />

else right now.<br />

“It doesn’t feel safe,” he said. “I’m<br />

always on edge. Always. Even if I feel<br />

comfortable, I’m always like, ‘Okay,<br />

but make sure you’re watching out<br />

for yourself.’ Especially because all it<br />

takes is one drunk frat daddy and his<br />

friends to not like me. A lot of us feel<br />

like they could kill you and not have<br />

that much of a fuss.”<br />

The transgender community is often<br />

the recipient of violence, and after<br />

this election season, people like Finn<br />

worry about their personal safety.<br />

Finn goes through college in fear, trying<br />

not to stand out, trying to avoid<br />

being outed in front of people who may<br />

hurt him for becoming the person he<br />

feels he was meant to be.<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [59]


Finn’s freshman year, he lived in the<br />

girls’ dorms. He wasn’t out yet, so he<br />

had no choice. It was okay, though, because<br />

he always ended up by himself.<br />

His roommates were never there. His<br />

biggest problem was that he lived really<br />

close to fraternity houses, and some<br />

of the guys who lived there seemed to<br />

have a serious problem with him.<br />

One day, he was trying to park his<br />

car while several men were trying to<br />

park a boat. One of them saw him.<br />

“What is it?” he said, staring at Finn.<br />

“Get out of the car and come talk to<br />

us,” another said.<br />

They continued to harass him,<br />

frightening him. Finn spoke to some<br />

people in Safe Zone, an ally network at<br />

The University of Alabama which aims<br />

to educate people on LGBT topics, according<br />

to its website. He filed a police<br />

report and spoke to Housing and Residential<br />

Communities.<br />

Finn said the people in Housing were<br />

very accommodating, and they ended<br />

up moving him. He told them he didn’t<br />

feel comfortable living with either gender,<br />

and they moved him to a single.<br />

Mostly, Finn said, some people just<br />

give him mean looks, or act awkwardly<br />

around him. It’s awful, but better than<br />

harassment or violence.<br />

Finn has had his name picked out<br />

since high school. He spent hours<br />

Googling baby name sites. His first<br />

name was always in his head, knowing<br />

that Finn was what he would be called.<br />

He did not pick out his middle name,<br />

however, until the day he went to officially<br />

change his name.<br />

Calling him by his chosen name is<br />

a matter of courtesy, Finn said. Even<br />

some of his friends still call him “she,”<br />

which becomes awkward and scary in<br />

situations where he is around people<br />

who don’t know he’s transgender.<br />

“It really feels like you don’t respect<br />

me if you do that,” he said. “They’re<br />

like, ‘oh, when I met you I thought you<br />

were a girl, so.’ I’ve met people who<br />

have transitioned, and I don’t mess<br />

that up.”<br />

Kirk Walter, assistant director of<br />

student involvement at Safe Zone, and<br />

Lizzie Emerson, Safe Zone graduate<br />

assistant, said that while it depends<br />

on your health care provider, generally<br />

speaking, procedures or treatments<br />

are not covered for gender dysphoria.<br />

“We kind of exist in a medical desert<br />

in Tuscaloosa, in that we do not have<br />

medical practitioners in town that will<br />

really work or work well with the trans<br />

community,” Walter said. “So for example,<br />

if an individual wants to begin<br />

the hormone treatment, there are no<br />

doctors in Tuscaloosa or in the immediately<br />

surrounding area that will<br />

work with anybody to do that.”<br />

There are two doctors Safe Zone refer<br />

to students for treatment. Both are<br />

in Birmingham, but Walter said the<br />

wait time to see those doctors can be<br />

six to nine months.<br />

Both doctors turned Finn down,<br />

and he had to go to a doctor in Georgia.<br />

In addition, many doctors, including<br />

Finn’s, want patients to go<br />

through a year of therapy before<br />

beginning treatment.<br />

“It took me three years of actively<br />

trying to get on hormones,” he said.<br />

Finn’s health care pays for some of<br />

his hormonal treatments, but only because<br />

his doctor has it listed as something<br />

else. He says health care should<br />

pay for hormonal treatments for the<br />

transgender community because it’s<br />

absolutely necessary in many cases,<br />

including his.<br />

“I felt least safe when I was trying<br />

my best not to be masculine, but it<br />

didn’t work,” he said. “You still have<br />

all these female features. <strong>No</strong>t only do<br />

you have to wait an extra year, it took<br />

me another year, year and a half to get<br />

someone that would actually help me.<br />

It was torture.”<br />

Eventually, Finn thinks he may want<br />

a hysterectomy, an expensive surgery<br />

to remove the uterus that almost no<br />

health care provider will cover for the<br />

transgender community.<br />

“You have to go to all kinds of crazy<br />

places [to get it done],” he said. “It’s<br />

a lot of debating on, ‘Do I want to try<br />

to spend all of my time saving up this<br />

money, or do I want to just deal with<br />

the days where I feel like shit.’ ”<br />

For individuals in the process of<br />

transitioning, Emerson said, health<br />

insurance and access to preventative<br />

medicine can be a huge issue.<br />

“A person may need gynecological<br />

preventative care but not have access<br />

to that because their birth certificate<br />

doesn’t say the right thing anymore,”<br />

she said.<br />

There are four bathrooms on campus<br />

Finn feels comfortable using. Up<br />

until he began using hormones, he has<br />

always felt awkward trying to figure<br />

out whether to use the male or female<br />

bathroom. His decision usually came<br />

down to how he was dressed.<br />

“A lot of the times I would make a<br />

point not to talk,” he said. “If I went<br />

into the male bathroom and I looked<br />

male, if I talked, it would give it away.<br />

I’ve basically got a running list of all<br />

the gender-neutral bathrooms on campus.<br />

There’s definitely not enough.”<br />

[60] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


Depending on where a<br />

transgender person is in<br />

transitioning, choosing<br />

which bathroom to use<br />

can be a matter of<br />

personal safety.<br />

Finn said depending on where a<br />

transgender person is in transitioning,<br />

choosing which bathroom to use can<br />

be a matter of personal safety. Gender-neutral<br />

bathrooms, often labeled<br />

as family bathrooms, can alleviate the<br />

stress and safety concerns of choosing<br />

which bathroom to use. However,<br />

the state of Alabama currently has no<br />

positive gender-neutral bathroom laws,<br />

among other ways the state suppresses<br />

the transgender community.<br />

Finn said he honestly couldn’t think<br />

of anything the state does to protect<br />

the transgender community, wishing<br />

officials would make it easier to change<br />

gender registration.<br />

According to the National Center for<br />

Transgender Equality, to change your<br />

name in Alabama, you have to submit<br />

a petition to the probate court for a<br />

name change order. To update your<br />

name and gender on state identification,<br />

you have to change your name<br />

with the Social Security Administration<br />

and then submit a court order for<br />

a name change and documentation<br />

signed by a surgeon verifying that<br />

you’ve had gender reassignment surgery.<br />

To update your birth certificate,<br />

you need proof that you’ve had gender<br />

reassignment surgery as well.<br />

Since surgery is so expensive, many<br />

transgender people will never change<br />

their gender on their birth certificate<br />

or Alabama identification, he said.<br />

In addition, according to The University<br />

of Alabama Registrar, in order<br />

to change your gender with the university,<br />

you also need a letter from a<br />

doctor certifying that they performed<br />

sexual reassignment surgery on you.<br />

This can pose problems for students in<br />

situations where their genders appear<br />

in the University system.<br />

Chris Bryant, interim director of<br />

Media Relations at the university, said<br />

on a class roster a pronoun and a preferred<br />

first and last name is listed.<br />

“So, on the class roster a student can<br />

indicate their pronoun and the name<br />

by which they wish to be identified,”<br />

Bryant said.<br />

Bryant also said a student’s photo<br />

is available in the student information<br />

system, for instructors and advisers to<br />

look at.<br />

However, Finn said he had a different<br />

experience with photo and name<br />

changes. Because he was not out his<br />

freshman year of college, his original<br />

university identification photo showed<br />

him as a female and the system had<br />

his birth name. It eventually became a<br />

problem when school offices would not<br />

accept his identification.<br />

“They didn’t believe it,” he said. “I<br />

had to show like five different cards<br />

from my wallet, and each one had both<br />

names. I was like, ‘I promise I’m me.’ ”<br />

Lizzie Emerson of Safe Zone said one<br />

of the major things universities can do<br />

is to allow students to self identify on<br />

all forms, giving the example of how<br />

the student health center’s basic forms<br />

are not gender inclusive.<br />

“The first step is to know who they<br />

are,” she said, adding that the university<br />

can project an institutional show<br />

of solidarity to make students feel<br />

safer on campus.<br />

“I think that’s been missing so far,”<br />

she said.<br />

At Safe Zone, they talk about allyship<br />

as a verb instead of a noun. This<br />

requires people to go beyond just<br />

“Facebook activism” and help people<br />

in their day-to-day lives.<br />

“You act as an ally,” Walter said.<br />

“You act in solidarity with. If you are<br />

not a member of the community, it requires<br />

deliberate action.”<br />

Walter said if all the different advocacy<br />

organizations came together and<br />

recognized the intersectionality of all<br />

these communities, that would make a<br />

huge difference.<br />

“If I’m an advocate for the LGBTQ<br />

community, because there are LGBTQ<br />

members of color, I also need to be an<br />

advocate for Black Lives Matter,” he<br />

said. “And because there are those who<br />

identify as women within the LGBTQ<br />

community, I also need to be a feminist.<br />

Because there are LGBTQ folks<br />

who use mobility devices, I also need<br />

to be an advocate for Americans with<br />

disabilities. If everyone recognized<br />

that intersection, that you cannot have<br />

social justice of whatever group you’re<br />

interested in supporting without also<br />

having social justice for those folks<br />

who have the intersection of the identity<br />

that you care about, if everyone<br />

would recognize that, we’d win.” *<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [61]


HEALTH & FOOD<br />

VITAMINS, MINERALS AND SUPPLEMENTS,<br />

OH MY!<br />

By Caroline Wells<br />

Comfortably sitting on my couch one Friday night,<br />

sipping tea and catching up on the latest episode<br />

of The Bachelor, I had an overwhelming sense of<br />

needing to be healthier. All the contestants on The Bachelor<br />

seemed to lounge around and sip wine while staying in<br />

perfect shape. “How do they do that? They must take a pill<br />

or something,” I wondered. I unlocked my phone, pulled up<br />

Instagram and went to my favorite health nut feed looking<br />

for a quick solution to what seemed like a never-ending<br />

problem of mine – wanting to be “healthy.”<br />

One Instagram account claimed taking Vitamin B12 pills<br />

would provide more energy for better workouts so I could<br />

burn more fat. Another account claimed taking a pre-workout<br />

and biotin was the secret to a lean, toned body. With<br />

these claims in mind, I headed to the local Target to find<br />

my magic vitamin elixir. As I was walking down the vitamin<br />

supplement aisle, I felt like I was standing at the<br />

foot of a tsunami wave. How do I know which vitamins to<br />

take? And which brand is the best deal? Should I get the<br />

ones in the cute, colorful bottle or stick to the tried and<br />

true Flintstones vitamins?<br />

Supplement marketing can mislead consumers into thinking<br />

that taking a supplement is as good as intake of nutrients<br />

through food. Currently, a popular trend is to take<br />

large doses of Vitamin C to prevent or cure a cold. Food<br />

chemist and Registered Dietitian Dr. Kristi Crowe-White,<br />

RD stated, “Megadoses of Vitamin C aren’t beneficial, as<br />

the body can only absorb so much Vitamin C at once. The<br />

excess amount is excreted, not stored for later. However,<br />

the amount of Vitamin C in fruits and vegetables is present<br />

in a dosage within our body’s ability to absorb it fully.”<br />

Dr. Crowe-White added Vitamin C is an extremely useful<br />

antioxidant in the body, but it is not necessary to gulp down<br />

large vitamin C supplementation daily.<br />

So if taking every vitamin off the shelf won’t help, what<br />

will? I’m so glad you asked! A healthy, balanced diet.<br />

[62] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

“Healthy,” meaning a diet full of vegetables, fruits and<br />

whole grains. Vegetables are incredible because they supply<br />

tremendous amounts of vitamins and minerals. Spinach<br />

and other dark, leafy greens are a source of almost every<br />

vitamin and mineral. Whole Grains contain B vitamins (energy),<br />

plus they are a great source of fiber to control hunger.<br />

Dr. Crowe-White said, “Your first step before supplementing<br />

should be looking at your diet. Write down what you eat<br />

(she recommends 2 weekdays and 2 weekend days) so you’ll<br />

have a better idea of what nutrients are missing and what<br />

you are getting from your diet.”<br />

One of the main supplements everyone should be taking<br />

is probiotics. Probiotics supply the intestines and gut<br />

with beneficial microorganisms, which impact our immune<br />

system and ability to absorb vitamins and minerals. Dr.<br />

Crowe-White stated, “In order for the vitamins and minerals<br />

we get from our diet to be better absorbed and utilized<br />

… we need to do everything we can for our gut bacteria.<br />

Probiotics can only enhance our health.”<br />

Taking probiotics can only be helpful in our quest to be<br />

healthier, so if you only buy one thing from Target, let<br />

it be a probiotic. If our gut is not ready to absorb nutrients,<br />

then taking more and more vitamins will never solve<br />

the problem.<br />

Resisting the urge to eat badly and take vitamins later<br />

is difficult in this quick-fix culture. Vitamin brands would<br />

like you to think that taking a “fat-blocker” or “carb inhibitor”<br />

is the answer to losing weight while still eating a high<br />

sugar and low nutrient dense diet. When asked about how<br />

proficient these fat-blocking supplements really were, Crow-<br />

White replied, “Show me the science. I think that there<br />

are a lot of claims out there that are unfounded. Unfortunately,<br />

supplements are unregulated by any government<br />

agency and it’s on the manufacturer to be truthful. These<br />

supplements can bear claims without being approved by the<br />

FDA.” To sell products, manufacturers can print any claim<br />

they would like and paste it to the outside of a bottle. As<br />

a general rule of thumb, if the claim sounds magical, it is<br />

probably false.<br />

After scouring the internet, research sites, and reflecting<br />

on my own personal testing over the past year, I have compiled<br />

a list of vitamins I think are worth the money and are<br />

supplementing holes in my college diet. These are the supplements<br />

that have helped me, however; each person’s need<br />

for supplementation varies based on their diet. *


PROBIOTIC<br />

Brand: Nutrition <strong>No</strong>w<br />

Name: PB 8<br />

Where to Buy: Amazon, $13<br />

Why should I take it? Probiotics are the food for the bacteria<br />

in the gut. The bacteria in the gut are needed to help<br />

the intestines absorb nutrients from the diet and help the<br />

body excrete waste. My college diet unfortunately contains<br />

a lot of sugars, which kill off the good bacteria in the<br />

gut. This probiotic is an affordable way to get those good<br />

bacteria back!<br />

OMEGA 3<br />

Brand: Nature’s Bounty<br />

Name: Fish Oil<br />

Where to buy: Amazon, $10<br />

Why should I take it? Fish oils, specifically EPA/DHA,<br />

support healthy levels of triglycerides and cholesterol in the<br />

body, which may reduce the risk of heart disease and help fatsoluble<br />

vitamins absorb. On a college budget, I cannot afford<br />

to include fish in my weekly diet, so these fill in where<br />

my diet lacks.<br />

VITAMIN A + BIOTIN<br />

Brand: Navan Skin Care<br />

Name: True Clear Skin Clarifying Supplement<br />

Where to Buy: NavanSkinCare.com, $35<br />

Why should I take it? I have had acne and skin care problems<br />

since puberty and have found that my diet lacks the<br />

recommended amount of Vitamin A, which supports healthy<br />

skin. Since taking these vitamins regularly, my skin has<br />

been consistently clear. The secret to these pills is taking<br />

them with adequate healthy fat in the diet, because Vitamin<br />

A will not absorb without fat.<br />

MAGNESIUM<br />

Brand: Blue Bonnet<br />

Name: Calcium Citrate, Magnesium, Vitamin D3<br />

Where to buy: Amazon, $20<br />

Why should I take it? Regular headaches and sleepless<br />

nights plagued me when I first got to college. Add tons of<br />

stress and anxiety and you’ve got a recipe for a magnesium<br />

deficiency. Once I started taking magnesium, the stress levels<br />

in my body significantly decreased, and I had an easier<br />

time falling asleep and staying asleep.<br />

Remember, supplements are great, but only in the correct<br />

context. To figure out what supplements are best for you,<br />

try recording your diet and then seeing a Registered Dietitian<br />

for advice.<br />

TB1277886_FA16_HudsonPoole.indd<br />

1111 GREENSBORO AVE<br />

TUSCALOOSA, AL 35401<br />

205.752.5535<br />

HUDSONPOOLE.COM<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [63]


HEALTH & FOOD<br />

Photos by Teah Shaw<br />

[64] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


Backflips for Bama<br />

By Claire Turner<br />

Kiana Winston straightens her<br />

crimson and houndstooth bow in the<br />

locker room mirror, laughing with<br />

her teammates as she adjusts her<br />

bedazzled leotard one last time. She<br />

lines up to walk through the hallway,<br />

the roar of thousands of people in the<br />

crowd growing louder and louder with<br />

each step. Sparklers shoot out golden<br />

fireworks through four illuminated,<br />

larger than life letters: B-A-M-A.<br />

Winston runs out with the rest of<br />

The University of Alabama gymnastics<br />

team, taking in the coliseum with<br />

15,000 seats, four center-hung Jumbo<br />

Trons, two scoreboards and the<br />

feeling of experiencing it all with her<br />

best friends beside her. She feels her<br />

heart swell with pride as she steps<br />

onto the crimson script A on the court,<br />

knowing she’s achieving all her goals<br />

at the college she always dreamed<br />

of attending.<br />

Winston is not thinking about<br />

her homework in her classes for her<br />

psychology major, nor that project she<br />

has due for her human development<br />

minor. Though it is her junior year,<br />

she’s nine hours from her home in Fort<br />

Worth, Texas, and she’s had three<br />

surgeries due to gymnastics injuries,<br />

Winston was focusing on landing<br />

her killer double layout in her floor<br />

routine and nailing her release on the<br />

uneven bars.<br />

“What I love most about competing<br />

is the butterflies that you get,”<br />

Winston said. “And just being one<br />

with yourself, having an audience and<br />

performing for yourself so it’s like, ‘let<br />

me show you what I can do.’ God gave<br />

me these gifts, so I’m definitely going<br />

to use them.”<br />

Winston’s favorite part of being<br />

a gymnast is her ability to do what<br />

others can’t.<br />

“I love setting a goal and pushing<br />

myself to make it. I love that<br />

determination factor of it.”<br />

Her determination paid off at<br />

the 2016 Southeastern Conference<br />

Championships in Little Rock,<br />

Arkansas, when she scored a 9.95<br />

out of a perfect 10 on her bar routine,<br />

achieving an exhilarating tie with<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [65]


teammate and roommate Katie Bailey.<br />

Despite being part of team that has<br />

won nine SEC Championships and<br />

six NCAA National Championships,<br />

Winston stays pretty levelheaded<br />

in school, saying she doesn’t feel a<br />

difference between being a student<br />

athlete and a normal student.<br />

“I don’t really know that many<br />

people, so I’m not really treated very<br />

differently,” she said. “I would say<br />

that the perks here with the academic<br />

center and of course [the gymnastics]<br />

training facility really help me reach<br />

my goals.”<br />

Winston maintains a healthy gradepoint<br />

average in Alabama’s Center<br />

for Athletic Student Services, where<br />

student athletes are required to attend<br />

study hall sessions every night their<br />

first year on campus. Her body is<br />

kept in shape in the extraordinarily<br />

efficient and safe gymnastics practice<br />

center that features five balance<br />

beams, two foam pits, six pairs of<br />

uneven bars, several vaults and a large,<br />

springy practice floor for perfecting<br />

floor routines.<br />

In addition to this, Winston and<br />

the gymnastics team have a private<br />

training room and personal trainers<br />

who assist with conditioning and<br />

treatments, like icing or heating the<br />

body or a deep-tissue massage, as<br />

well as helping the girls maintain a<br />

healthy diet.<br />

“I like pizza a lot, but I don’t eat it<br />

all the time,” she said, adding a love<br />

for ice cream. “I don’t necessarily have<br />

to watch what I eat, but I am aware of<br />

what I eat.”<br />

Though practicing and competing<br />

take up a lot of time, Winston and her<br />

teammates are accustomed to busy<br />

schedules. When heading to a meet<br />

at a different school, they set aside a<br />

specific time for studying.<br />

“I have class Monday through<br />

Friday,” Winston said. “If we’re<br />

traveling then we have excused<br />

absences, but we still have to get all of<br />

our work done. So it’s a little bit busier<br />

with travel meets, but we know how to<br />

manage our time.”<br />

Though Winston has done<br />

gymnastics since she was a child, she<br />

doesn’t plan on furthering her career<br />

in the sport past college, choosing<br />

instead to focus her future on children.<br />

“I’m not necessarily done with the<br />

sport,” she said. “Of course I’m going<br />

to come back for all the alumni meets,<br />

and I’m going to visit. But I want to see<br />

what’s out there besides gymnastics.<br />

It’s all I’ve known my whole life.”<br />

Winston wants to get her Master’s<br />

degree in psychology and give back to<br />

children, whether that’s counseling,<br />

owning a day care or even coaching a<br />

children’s gymnastics team. But there<br />

are definitely things she’s going to<br />

miss when she leaves the Crimson Tide<br />

gymnastics team.<br />

“What I’m going to miss about<br />

competing at UA is the crowd and, of<br />

course, my teammates and the bond<br />

that we have,” she said.<br />

Winston and the rest of her team<br />

look forward to more sparkly costumes,<br />

locker room fun and excellent scores at<br />

competitions in the upcoming season. *<br />

[66] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


HEALTH & FOOD<br />

By Lauren Lane<br />

Once Gigi Hadid let the world know<br />

the secret to getting her svelte figure<br />

required kickboxing and a weekly<br />

cheeseburger, the exercise became a<br />

huge phenomenon for women. However,<br />

kickboxing has proven itself to be more<br />

than a fad. It is an incredible way to<br />

relieve stress, learn self-defense and<br />

get a high calorie burn in just one<br />

session. All it takes is a few minutes in<br />

the ring to make you feel like the girl<br />

boss you truly are.<br />

I took my first-ever kickboxing class<br />

at my university’s student recreation<br />

center. I figured since I was not taking<br />

it at a real kickboxing facility, it<br />

would not be intense, so I ran a mile<br />

beforehand for a warm-up. Boy, was I<br />

wrong.<br />

Caleigh Everingham, my instructor,<br />

got down to business in the first minute<br />

of class. We spent the entire 50-minute<br />

period doing cardio and worked every<br />

big muscle group. <strong>No</strong> one had on<br />

boxing gloves, but Caleigh kept up the<br />

intensity and worked us out through<br />

repetitions of kickboxing moves,<br />

squats, kicks and intense cardio.<br />

“I incorporate different classes<br />

and my own lifting workouts into my<br />

own exercise routine, but kickboxing<br />

is my favorite right now since I can<br />

incorporate high-intensity cardio<br />

bursts with agility exercises and<br />

strength and conditioning work,”<br />

Everingham said. “Some people first<br />

come to my class thinking it’s going<br />

to be just punching and kicking for 50<br />

minutes, but my goal is to give a fullbody<br />

workout in a much more varied<br />

and intense way than that.”<br />

I left class that evening feeling<br />

accomplished and proud of myself for<br />

pushing through. I loved the challenge<br />

of keeping up my heart rate and<br />

making every move just as intense<br />

and sharp as if I was in a real boxing<br />

match. I could feel the soreness hitting<br />

me as soon as class was over, and I<br />

made sure to stretch that night, even<br />

though I was painfully sore for the<br />

next three days.<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [67]


“<strong>No</strong>t only is kickboxing<br />

a physical workout,<br />

but it also has a mental<br />

aspect to it that<br />

is just as important.<br />

Many members who<br />

suffer with anxiety and<br />

depression see drastic<br />

improvements, which<br />

I think is something<br />

really overlooked.”<br />

I went in to 9Round, a local facility,<br />

for a free nine rounds of kickboxing<br />

and circuit training that made full use<br />

of my 30 minutes. Each round lasted<br />

for three minutes and consisted of a<br />

variety of boxing, strength and cardio<br />

moves. There were short circuits in<br />

between each round, making it exciting<br />

to see what the next challenge was even<br />

when I was exhausted.<br />

“In our 30 minute kickboxing<br />

workout, you’ll burn massive amounts<br />

of calories, continue to burn calories for<br />

hours after your workout is complete,<br />

release toxins, strengthen and tighten<br />

every muscle, boost your stamina,<br />

relieve stress, strengthen your heart,<br />

release endorphins and improve your<br />

sleep,” said Halle Wallace, coach and<br />

owner of 9Round, Tuscaloosa. “<strong>No</strong>t<br />

only is kickboxing a physical workout,<br />

but it also has a mental aspect to it that<br />

is just as important. Many members<br />

who suffer with anxiety and depression<br />

see drastic improvements, which I<br />

think is something really overlooked.”<br />

Both coaches mentioned kickboxing<br />

helping themselves and their clients<br />

battle depression and anxiety, along<br />

with building confidence in who they<br />

are. More than 90 percent of 9Round<br />

clients are women. Wallace finds<br />

satisfaction seeing females finding<br />

their strength and becoming more<br />

comfortable in their own skin.<br />

I felt empowered after leaving both<br />

workouts, and each one became so much<br />

more than just burning calories and<br />

rather helped me focus on becoming a<br />

better version of myself.<br />

“The world tries to tell women<br />

what they should look like and who<br />

they should be, but I believe that<br />

kickboxing is an avenue for women to<br />

mold themselves into who they want to<br />

be,” Everingham said. “I want women<br />

to have kickboxing as an outlet to take<br />

the good and bad things life throws at<br />

us and channel them into becoming<br />

stronger, healthier, and happier. My<br />

hope is that the women who come to my<br />

classes leave feeling better than when<br />

they walked in and empowered to turn<br />

their goals into plans.” *<br />

SPRING101<br />

> TRENDS 2016<br />

@THE<br />

UNIVERSITY<br />

OF<br />

STYLE.<br />

online on facebook + university-mall.com<br />

1701 McFarland Blvd East<br />

Open Daily 10am-9pm, Sunday 1pm-5:30pm<br />

PLAID . COLD SHOULDER . TIE DYE . SUEDE<br />

FRINGE . BACKPACK PURSES . VIVID COLOR<br />

[68] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


HEALTH & FOOD<br />

SNACK<br />

HACKS<br />

By Analiese Gerald<br />

Hectic schedules and long days of classes make it easy to fall into<br />

the trap of eating fast food meals and snacks. While that Starbucks<br />

brownie tastes great in the moment, the result of this habit is a<br />

shrinking wallet and an unhealthy diet. Instead, try filling your<br />

backpack with these easy snacks to stay healthy on and off campus.<br />

Roasted Chickpeas<br />

If you’re looking for a nutritious snack that<br />

will keep you full, roasted chickpeas are a perfect<br />

fit. Chickpeas are a great source of protein and<br />

fiber and with this recipe they can make a tasty<br />

snack too.<br />

Ingredients<br />

1 can chickpeas<br />

1 tsp garlic salt<br />

1 tsp Italian seasoning<br />

1 tsp lemon pepper seasoning<br />

Directions<br />

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees<br />

2. Drain chickpeas and blot with a paper towel to<br />

dry them<br />

3. Spread chickpeas on a baking sheet and cover<br />

with the spices<br />

4. Bake for 20 minutes, turning chickpeas over with<br />

a spatula halfway through<br />

Chocolate<br />

Nut Clusters<br />

Satisfy your sweet tooth and growling stomach<br />

with this yummy combination of sweet and savory.<br />

The nuts provide protein and the chocolate, a<br />

monounsaturated fat, will keep you full until your<br />

next meal.<br />

Ingredients<br />

6 oz dark chocolate<br />

½ cup almonds<br />

½ cup shelled pistachios<br />

½ cup cashews<br />

Directions<br />

1. Melt chocolate in saucepan at medium low heat<br />

and mix in nuts<br />

2. Place spoonfuls of mixture ½ inch apart on<br />

parchment paper<br />

3. Refrigerate clusters until firm; store in the fridge<br />

Cinnamon and Sugar<br />

Pumpkin Seeds<br />

Another mix of sweet and salty, cinnamon and<br />

sugar pumpkin seeds are a classic holiday treat<br />

that you can easily make at home all year around.<br />

Pumpkin seeds are nutritious and filling, while the<br />

cinnamon and sugar add a tasty twist.<br />

Ingredients<br />

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds<br />

1 tbsp coconut oil<br />

1 tbsp cinnamon<br />

1 tbsp sugar<br />

Directions<br />

1. Heat coconut oil in saucepan on medium heat<br />

2. Cook pumpkin seeds, stirring in cinnamon and<br />

sugar, until seeds start browning<br />

Oatmeal Balls<br />

This power snack is a delicious treat that is also<br />

packed with nutrients, protein and fiber. It’s perfect<br />

for an on-the-go breakfast or snack between classes.<br />

Ingredients<br />

1 cup oats<br />

½ cup peanut butter<br />

1/3 cup honey<br />

1/3 cup goji berries<br />

½ cup toasted shredded coconut<br />

1 tbsp chia seeds<br />

Directions<br />

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl<br />

2. Roll mixture into 1-inch balls and place on parchment<br />

paper<br />

3. Refrigerate until firm; store in fridge<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [69]


HEALTH & FOOD<br />

[70] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


FRUIT PIZZA<br />

If your afternoon protein bar has<br />

gotten boring, we have the solution...<br />

make a fruit pizza instead! Fruit<br />

pizzas are delicious, filling and healthy<br />

pick-me-ups that will brighten up<br />

your snacking.<br />

MIX AND MATCH TO CREATE YOUR PIZZA<br />

CRUSTS:<br />

Bagel Half, Rice Cake, English Muffin Half, Waffle<br />

SAUCES:<br />

Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter, Nutella, Vanilla Yogurt, Jam<br />

FRUITS:<br />

Strawberries, Blueberries, Kiwi, Banana, Apple, Raspberries<br />

TOPPINGS:<br />

Nuts, Dried Fruit, Coconut, Chocolate Chips<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [71]


ENTERTAINMENT<br />

Ride the<br />

Moon Taxi<br />

By Ellen Johnson and Katie Huff<br />

In the basement green rooms<br />

of the Alabama Theatre in<br />

Birmingham, members of the band<br />

Moon Taxi are busy making music<br />

for their next record. They’re on<br />

the road, enjoying down time here<br />

and there, but still – in a basement<br />

surrounded by boxes of pizza and<br />

a bustling crew, just hours before<br />

their <strong>No</strong>v. 25 show – they’re<br />

making music. The stage is being<br />

set, sound check is in an hour and<br />

eager fans with VIP meet-and-greet<br />

passes will soon arrive.<br />

In the midst of it all, lead singer<br />

Trevor Terndrup offered us a slice of<br />

pizza and sat down to tell the band’s<br />

story, and the story behind Moon<br />

Taxi’s name. Don’t think too hard<br />

about it – there is no mystique behind<br />

this group’s handle.<br />

“What really happened was the bass<br />

player mooned a taxi,” Terndrup said.<br />

<strong>No</strong> complicated formula or<br />

philosophical musings in this band<br />

name – just the story of a guy<br />

unsuccessfully trying to hail a cab.<br />

Though the origin of Moon Taxi’s<br />

name is fully exposed, the story of<br />

their music needed some uncovering.<br />

The Alabama Theatre concert was<br />

a homecoming of sorts for the band.<br />

Three of its members – Terndrup,<br />

bassist Tommy Putnam, and drummer<br />

Tyler Ritter – hail from Vestavia<br />

Hills, Ala. Joined by guitarist Spencer<br />

Thomson and keyboardist Wes Bailey,<br />

they all came together in Nashville and<br />

have been making music ever since.<br />

Following their successful first album<br />

Melodica in 2007, Moon Taxi released<br />

three more records, and (as seen in<br />

their nomadic recording methods)<br />

they’re definitely not stopping there.<br />

When we met the band at the<br />

Alabama Theatre, the sounds of Bailey<br />

and Thomson cranking out new tunes<br />

could be heard echoing from the room<br />

next door.<br />

“You walked in on it,” Terndrup<br />

said to us of the new music. “You’re<br />

part of history.”<br />

Moon Taxi has played all over<br />

the country in every kind of venue<br />

imaginable. From fraternity houses<br />

and hole-in-the-wall bars to festivals<br />

and amphitheaters, they have done<br />

it all. They sell out theaters and<br />

they’re regulars at the Hangout Fest,<br />

Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, but you<br />

[72] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


can also catch them at venues like<br />

Druid City Music Hall, or even a<br />

fraternity house at Mississippi State<br />

University. With each stop, it seems<br />

like more and more fans are hopping<br />

on board.<br />

At the show we attended, the<br />

audience was a hodge-podge of old and<br />

young. High school students and adults<br />

alike filled the seats of the Alabama<br />

Theatre, and many friends and family<br />

members of the band were also there<br />

to excitedly welcome Moon Taxi home.<br />

“I think it’s definitely necessary to<br />

go through those steps to play those<br />

small dive bars, because you really<br />

appreciate it when you get to play in a<br />

beautiful room like the theater we’re in<br />

right now,” Terndrup said. “I’ve loved<br />

every step of the journey.”<br />

Their most recent album,<br />

Daybreaker, released in<br />

2015, has been some of their<br />

most popular music yet, but<br />

they still have stuck to their<br />

original style. They have<br />

mastered the art of creating<br />

new and fresh music that<br />

is still undeniably true to<br />

their own sound.<br />

“It’s been a long<br />

journey,” Terndrup said.<br />

“We’ve grown as people and<br />

gotten closer as friends and<br />

as a band. It’s a group of<br />

brothers at this point and<br />

I think that’s reflected in the lyrical<br />

content. But I think the songwriting<br />

itself has gotten better too.”<br />

One of the hit songs from<br />

Daybreaker is “All Day All Night,”<br />

which was featured in a McDonald’s<br />

all-day breakfast commercial.<br />

Fans new and old were pleased to<br />

hear the jam accompany the fast<br />

food advertisement.<br />

“I think a lot of people heard it<br />

which was also good,” Terndrup said<br />

of the song. “Our fans, if they really<br />

like us, they’re like, ‘Alright, that’s<br />

cool.’ If they kind of like us, they’re<br />

like, ‘I don’t know, I like McDonalds.’”<br />

“All Day All Night” is fun and<br />

upbeat and the perfect background<br />

noise for eating a McMuffin, but it’s<br />

not the only song sticking around<br />

in the minds of Moon Taxi’s fans.<br />

Songwriting is a collaborative effort<br />

for the band, and their system works.<br />

With songs referencing nature, love,<br />

adventure and even death, their<br />

music covers all the bases and gives<br />

listeners the power to derive their<br />

own meanings.<br />

“People can read into them if they<br />

want but they’re still about concrete<br />

ideas,” Terndrup said. “That’s the cool<br />

thing. Sometimes you want to write<br />

lyrics that are a little more abstract<br />

so people can read their own meaning<br />

into them, but also sometimes a song<br />

is just about something specific like a<br />

“I think it’s definitely<br />

necessary to go through<br />

those steps to play those<br />

small dive bars, because<br />

you really appreciate it<br />

when you get to play in a<br />

beautiful room...”<br />

cup of tea or something like that.”<br />

One clear string in much of Moon<br />

Taxi’s music is a reference to nature<br />

and experiences. So, what’s up with all<br />

the talk of rivers, oceans, beaches and<br />

sunsets? Terndrup had a theory.<br />

“We look out the window a lot on the<br />

tour bus,” Terndrup said. “It’s nicer<br />

outside than inside.”<br />

One of Terndrup’s favorites is<br />

“Juniper” off of the 2013 record<br />

Mountains Beaches Cities. While<br />

listeners may derive their own<br />

meanings, this one is special to him for<br />

his own reasons.<br />

“It’s about the sun dying, the light<br />

source going,” Terndrup said. “It was<br />

also about my grandmother passing.<br />

And it was the last song on the record,<br />

so it has this finale at the end.”<br />

In addition to their own songs, Moon<br />

Taxi can rock out a cover. They’ve<br />

covered “Everybody Wants to Rule<br />

the World,“ “Stressed Out,” and Bob<br />

Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”<br />

with flying colors (They were even<br />

invited to Dylan Fest, a tribute event<br />

complete with superstars like Kings of<br />

Leon and Ke$ha).<br />

“Covers are always fun just to<br />

break up the set,” Terndrup said. “We<br />

pride ourselves on doing good versions<br />

of covers.”<br />

Moon Taxi isn’t afraid to cater to<br />

their audience, and their strategically<br />

designed setlists pay off.<br />

“Tonight is a theatre<br />

so we might cater the set<br />

a little different for the<br />

environment,” Terndrup<br />

said. “Sometimes we like to<br />

play new songs in the live<br />

environment and see how<br />

people react to them, and<br />

that informs the writing<br />

process.”<br />

As Moon Taxi performs<br />

around the country and<br />

releases new music, the<br />

band leaves a trail of happy<br />

audiences and loyal fans.<br />

Their newly-recorded music is aimed<br />

to be released sometime early this year.<br />

Their concert was two hours of pure<br />

fun. From treating the audience to<br />

acoustic versions of songs like “River<br />

Water” and “The New Black” to<br />

getting everyone on their feet for the<br />

crowd-favorite “Morocco,” these guys<br />

just know how to entertain. Their<br />

strong songwriting yields an everchanging<br />

combination of escapist<br />

jams, and Terndrup sees their music<br />

just as such.<br />

“We’re kind of escapism,” Terndrup<br />

said. “We like to escape and have fun.” *<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [73]


ENTERTAINMENT<br />

SPRING<br />

BREAK<br />

READS<br />

By Kyarra Harris<br />

The only thing missing from your spring break<br />

beach bag is a good read. We know how it goes:<br />

You want something fresh and new, but also<br />

entertaining. We’ve compiled a list of the best<br />

new books to read this spring that are sure to<br />

keep you from snoozing on your flight or dozing off in the<br />

sand (and getting sunburnt). So apply that sunscreen and<br />

grab one of these novels before you take off on your spring<br />

break adventures.<br />

Caraval by Stephanie Garber<br />

“Before you enter the world of Caraval, you must remember<br />

that it’s all a game...”<br />

Two sisters escape their abusive father who has set up an<br />

arranged marriage for his daughter Scarlett, and upsets her<br />

dream of seeing the “legendary once-a-year” performance,<br />

Caraval. But when sister Tella enlists the help of a sailor to get<br />

them to the show and is kidnapped by the show’s ringleader,<br />

Scarlett must learn the rules of the mysterious game, and<br />

find her sister before the five nights of the game are over and<br />

her sister is lost forever.<br />

Caraval is Garber’s Young Adult (YA) debut. She’s a<br />

professor for a private college in <strong>No</strong>rthern California, and<br />

though this book is her first YA novel, she has already<br />

received praise from other best-selling YA authors such as<br />

Sabaa Tahir and Kiersten White.<br />

The Mothers by Brit Bennett<br />

When 17-year-old Nadia Turner entered her senior year<br />

of high school, she was still grief-stricken by her mother’s<br />

suicide. She began a light relationship with the local pastor’s<br />

son, Luke. But the teen pregnancy that results, and its coverup,<br />

will haunt the individuals for years to come. The years<br />

pass as Nadia hides her secret, even from her best friend<br />

Aubrey. Soon Nadia, Luke and Aubrey are looking back on<br />

the decisions they all made that summer, and wonder what life<br />

would be like if they had done things differently.<br />

Bennett was born and raised in Southern California,<br />

and she uses her experience living in a contemporary black<br />

community in California to give excellent details to her book.<br />

The Mothers is Bennett’s first novel.<br />

[74] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


The Best Kind of People<br />

by Zoe Whittall<br />

“What if someone you trusted was accused of<br />

the unthinkable?”<br />

George Woodbury, a teacher working for a prestigious prep<br />

school, is arrested for sexual impropriety. The Best Kind of<br />

People follows his wife, Joan, who’s angry and in denial, his<br />

daughter Sadie, who goes from a popular high school senior<br />

to an outcast, and his son Andrew, who assists in his father’s<br />

defense, but remembers the unhappiness of his teenage years.<br />

The family must relearn how to live their lives while<br />

questioning George’s guilt.<br />

sister of a brutal tyrant who rules the Shotet people, uses her<br />

power to exploit and torture his enemies. Akos, coming from<br />

a peaceful nation called Thuyhe, and his brother are captured<br />

by the Shotet. He will stop at nothing to get him out alive.<br />

Both Cyra and Akos must decide to help each other, or follow<br />

their in family’s footsteps and destroy one another.<br />

Why We Came to the City<br />

Kristopher Jansma<br />

Jansma tells a story about young friends who are<br />

just five years out of college starting their lives in New<br />

York. The characters are finding their way through the<br />

big city: editor Sara Sherman; her boyfriend astronomer<br />

George Murphy, who’s dealing with addiction;<br />

“loudmouth poet” Jacob Blaumann, who is no longer the<br />

poet he used to be; William Cho, an investment banker;<br />

and Irene Richmond, an “enchanting artist.” When one<br />

friend falls incredibly ill, the characters are forced to step<br />

back and look at their lives and relationships as well as the<br />

one they have with the city they all chose.<br />

In Why We Came To The City, Jansma is living up to the<br />

high expectations set by his first book The Unchangeable<br />

Spots of Leopards as he describes his hometown through the<br />

eyes of young adults.<br />

Carve the Mark<br />

by Veronica Roth<br />

Roth, who is known for writing thrilling scenes that keep<br />

readers invested throughout all of her work, is the best-selling<br />

author of the Divergent series. Carve the Mark is a sci-fi novel<br />

that tells the story of Cyra and Akos, who have developed<br />

a unique power called currentgifts. Both characters’ gifts<br />

have made them vulnerable to the control of others. Cyra, the<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [75]


ENTERTAINMENT<br />

Hollywood’s<br />

Helping Hands<br />

By Emilee Benos<br />

We know our favorite celebrities<br />

from the movies they star in, from the<br />

albums they release and the runways<br />

they walk on, but they’re not always<br />

confined to their Hollywood bubble.<br />

Many use their fame as a platform to<br />

bring attention to important issues<br />

they are passionate about.<br />

While these celebs may have more<br />

money than we’ll ever see in our<br />

lifetimes, a lot of them put it to good<br />

use. <strong>Alice</strong> took a look at some of the<br />

most charitable celebrities and the<br />

causes they support.<br />

Emma Watson: HeForShe<br />

Watson serves as a U.N. Women’s<br />

Goodwill ambassador and has been<br />

actively involved in HeForShe, a U.N.<br />

women’s solidarity movement for<br />

gender equality, since the organization<br />

was formed in 2014. She hosted the<br />

HeForShe campaign launch event at<br />

the U.N. Headquarters in New York,<br />

where her speech on gender equality<br />

went viral. The campaign’s aim is<br />

to encourage men “to take action<br />

against inequalities faced by women,”<br />

according to the HeForShe website.<br />

HeForShe is based on the idea that<br />

“gender equality is a issue that affects<br />

all people.”<br />

[76] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

Ian Somerhaulder:<br />

Ian Somerhaulder Foundation<br />

Another U.N. Goodwill ambassador,<br />

Somerhalder is vocal about his passion<br />

and dedication to environmental<br />

problems plaguing the world today.<br />

Known for his work in The Vampire<br />

Diaries and Lost, Somerhalder is<br />

also an avid environmentalist and<br />

humanitarian. Inspired by the oil<br />

spill in the Gulf Coast, he founded<br />

the Ian Somerhalder Foundation —<br />

an organization to advance science,<br />

promote conservation and provide relief<br />

to the distressed and underprivileged.<br />

According to the ISF website, the goal<br />

is to support and empower youths to<br />

action through programs that promote<br />

education and innovation, and build<br />

leadership and empathy skills.<br />

Miley Cyrus: Happy Hippie<br />

Cyrus’s organization garnered a lot<br />

of attention when she famously brought<br />

a homeless man to the 2014 VMAs<br />

as her date. In her own words, the<br />

Happy Hippie foundation’s mission is<br />

to “make sure those who question the<br />

value of themselves and their lives feel<br />

protected and loved.” The organization<br />

is dedicated to helping homeless youth,<br />

LGBT youth and other vulnerable<br />

populations by encouraging young<br />

people to fight injustices.<br />

Leonardo DiCaprio:<br />

Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation<br />

Ian Somerhalder isn’t the only<br />

leading man passionate about the<br />

environment. Leo founded the<br />

Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in<br />

1998 at age 24. The LDF works to put<br />

an end to various environmental and<br />

humanitarian issues through grantmaking,<br />

initiating media projects and<br />

campaigning, according to the website.<br />

The LDF focuses on protecting the<br />

last of the world’s “wild places” and<br />

creating a balance between humans<br />

and nature.<br />

Jennifer Hudson:<br />

Julian D. King Gift Foundation<br />

Hudson founded the Julian D. King<br />

Gift Foundation in October 2008 in<br />

honor of her nephew Julian, who was<br />

killed by her sister’s ex-husband —<br />

the same man who killed Hudson’s<br />

mother and brother. According to<br />

the website, the Foundation offers<br />

“support and stability to children of<br />

all backgrounds.” Their goal is to help<br />

these children become “happy, healthy<br />

and confident adults.” Some of the<br />

foundation’s efforts include collecting<br />

and distributing Christmas presents<br />

and school supplies.


ENTERTAINMENT<br />

SECRETS<br />

OF SPOTIFY<br />

By Sarah Beth Bolin<br />

So you caved and finally subscribed to the studentdiscounted<br />

Spotify premium, the crowning glory of music<br />

streaming services. But you still don’t know how to do<br />

anything other than stream music from your computer.<br />

What’s the point of paying an extra $5 a month if you’re<br />

just going to use Spotify like any other streaming service?<br />

If you’re only using your Spotify account to listen to albums<br />

and user-generated playlists, you’re missing out on a ton of<br />

other features. Here’s a few tips and tricks to maximize your<br />

Spotify usage.<br />

Discover Weekly<br />

Discover Weekly is a weekly playlist engineered by Spotify<br />

to fit your tastes. Every Monday, Spotify analyzes what<br />

you’ve been listening to over the past week and selects new<br />

songs for you to try based on your playlists. Discover Weekly<br />

is one of the best ways to find new music, especially if you<br />

don’t know where to look or if the radio is a bore.<br />

Create Similar Playlists<br />

Have you ever really enjoyed a playlist but then grew tired<br />

of hearing the same songs over and over again? Spotify can<br />

help you out! Click the circle with the three dots in the header<br />

of your playlist, and select “Create Similar Playlist.” From<br />

there, Spotify will generate an inspired playlist very similar<br />

to your previous one and with the same number of songs.<br />

Audiobooks<br />

Sometimes when driving, it’s nice to listen to something<br />

other than music. Audiobooks can be the perfect background<br />

noise for a long road trip. From Pride and Prejudice to The<br />

Hobbit, Spotify offers books from every genre. The playlist<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [77]


“Audiobooks” and artist “DBS Audiobooks” carry hundreds<br />

of hours worth of classic novels and new releases, so you’ll<br />

always have something new to listen to.<br />

Offline Listening<br />

It can be frustrating when your jam session is interrupted<br />

by a poor Wi-Fi signal. With Spotify premium, however,<br />

you can save certain songs so they are downloaded on your<br />

device and will play while you’re offline. This feature can be<br />

very useful if you have bad service in certain areas, or if you<br />

run out of data for the month.<br />

Import Songs from iTunes<br />

Tired of having to switch back and forth between iTunes<br />

and Spotify? Make Spotify your primary venue for musiclistening<br />

by importing your songs from iTunes into Spotify.<br />

You can even import songs that aren’t available on Spotify,<br />

like Beyoncé’s Lemonade or all of Taylor Swift’s music.<br />

Select preferences on the desktop app, and scroll down to<br />

Local Files. There, you should be able to import any music<br />

that is saved on your computer’s hard drive.<br />

Mood Playlists<br />

Even Spotify knows that sometimes you need a playlist to<br />

compliment your mood. And in the pattern of Spotify’s everincreasing<br />

benefits, the service has accommodated those of<br />

us who like to dance it out whenever we have any sort of<br />

feelings. From “Confidence Boost” and “Happy Hits” to<br />

“Brain Food” and “Life Sucks,” there’s bound to be some<br />

sort of playlist that makes you think, “Wait, that’s exactly<br />

how I feel right now.”<br />

Artists Playlists<br />

Have you ever wondered what your favorite artists are<br />

listening to? Many artists who use Spotify as one of their<br />

main streaming services will let you know on their artist<br />

page. You can see their inspirations, all time favorites, or<br />

even their current go-to music. <strong>No</strong>w you finally have the<br />

chance to hear the music that inspires those who inspire you.<br />

Go to Song Radio<br />

Sometimes there’s that one song that dominates your mind<br />

and you can’t stop listening to over and over. When you<br />

finally get tired of it, you can visit a Spotify radio for that<br />

song, which includes similar music and other songs by the<br />

same artist. Click the three dots next to the song title and<br />

then “Go to Song Radio.” You’ll find yourself using all your<br />

old favorite songs to discover new favorites. *<br />

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[78] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


ENTERTAINMENT<br />

The ladies changing the face of comedy<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [79]


By Mia Blackman<br />

While a stereotype may exist that<br />

men dominate comedy, there are many<br />

hilarious heroines out there who are<br />

squashing it once and for all. These<br />

ladies are killing the comedy game and<br />

making it known to all that women are<br />

just as funny as men. Here’s <strong>Alice</strong>’s<br />

list for the best female comedians to<br />

watch right now.<br />

ALI WONG<br />

Born in San Francisco, Cali.,<br />

this UCLA graduate didn’t actually<br />

start doing stand-up until she was<br />

23. From there, Wong moved to New<br />

York to pursue her comedy dreams,<br />

and she began performing up to nine<br />

times a night. Wong has appeared<br />

on The Tonight Show, John Oliver’s<br />

New York Stand-Up Show and Dave<br />

Atell’s Comedy Underground Show.<br />

She has also appeared on Chelsea<br />

Lately numerous times and performed<br />

opposite Salma Hayek and Benicio<br />

[80] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

Del Toro in the 2012 crime thriller<br />

Savages. Wong provocatively jokes<br />

about how racism can actually make a<br />

marriage stronger and how she thinks<br />

housewives have it better than working<br />

wives. Her current comedy special,<br />

Baby Cobra, is available on Netflix.<br />

KATHLEEN MADIGAN<br />

One of seven children in an Irish-<br />

Catholic family, Madigan attended the<br />

University of Missouri-St. Louis (and<br />

accumulated $7,000 in parking tickets)<br />

before later graduating from Southern<br />

Illinois University Edwardsville with a<br />

degree in journalism. She worked for<br />

the St. Louis-area Suburban Journals<br />

newspaper while also performing<br />

stand-up in local comedy clubs. Her<br />

father gave her the courage to follow<br />

her comedic calling, and she later left<br />

her life in Missouri to fully enter the<br />

comedy world. Madigan has appeared<br />

on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,<br />

Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and<br />

Late Show with David Letterman.<br />

Madigan’s relatable comedy acts<br />

include rhetorics on the common<br />

struggle of going to the gym and what<br />

it was like growing up with her large<br />

family. She currently has two specials<br />

available on Netflix.<br />

JEN KIRKMAN<br />

This Massachusetts native has<br />

quite the impressive résumé when<br />

it comes to comedy and performing.<br />

Kirkman majored in acting at<br />

Emerson College in Boston and then<br />

went on to perform at several comedy<br />

clubs, including Hollywood Improv,<br />

The Laugh Factory, Largo and The<br />

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. She<br />

is a regular panelist on Chelsea Lately<br />

but has also appeared on Conan,<br />

released three comedy albums and<br />

written two episodes for the Disney<br />

Channel animated show Phineas and<br />

Ferb. Kirkman’s observational comedy<br />

takes us through the highs and lows<br />

of her love life, giving the audience<br />

insight into why she apologizes for


her honeymoon to single people and<br />

how after her divorce she refused to<br />

date anyone younger than her. Her<br />

newest special, I’m Gonna Die Alone<br />

(And I Feel Fine), is currently available<br />

on Netflix.<br />

TAMMY PESCATELLI<br />

From winning a comedic<br />

competition to writing and starring in<br />

her own reality show, this Ohio mother<br />

and wife has done it all. Pescatelli’s<br />

career promptly took off in 2004<br />

when she became a finalist on Last<br />

Comic Standing. Since then, she is<br />

constantly bringing smiles to people’s<br />

faces – appearing on numerous shows<br />

like The View, on several comedy radio<br />

stations on Sirius XM Radio and in<br />

The New York Post four times last year<br />

for funniest jokes. Pescatelli brings<br />

laughter as she tackles topics like body<br />

image and reminds everyone how we<br />

all have that one crazy friend. Her<br />

current special, Finding the Funny, is<br />

now available on Netflix.<br />

ANJELAH JOHNSON<br />

Best known for her hit MADtv<br />

character Bon Qui Qui, this former<br />

NFL cheerleader has been acting<br />

since she was a senior in high school.<br />

Johnson was fascinated with imitating<br />

different accents, and she studied<br />

speech communications at De Anza<br />

College. After a friend recommended<br />

she join a comedic writing class,<br />

Johnson moved to Los Angeles to take<br />

improv classes and pursue a career<br />

in comedy. She began to headline her<br />

own shows and was soon asked to join<br />

the cast of the sketch comedy show<br />

MADtv. Johnson has also appeared in<br />

a variety of movies like Marmaduke,<br />

Enough Said, and The Book of Life.<br />

Johnson keeps it down to earth by<br />

never forgetting her roots, and also by<br />

sharing her many hilarious encounters<br />

with strangers, most famously at<br />

the nail salon. She has currently has<br />

two specials available for streaming<br />

on Netflix.<br />

KITTY FLANAGAN<br />

This Australian comedian gives<br />

credit to her first production, <strong>Alice</strong> in<br />

Wonderland, for inciting her comedy<br />

cravings. Flanagan played a rabbit<br />

in the classic tale and the audience<br />

loved her performance so much that<br />

she knew comedy was her calling.<br />

She is a self proclaimed “attention<br />

seeker” and as a child would always<br />

put on shows with her two younger<br />

siblings. Flanagan is known as one of<br />

Australia’s funniest women, having<br />

appeared on Full Frontal, The Project,<br />

The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, and<br />

Utopia. Including her observations on<br />

Australian politics and her peculiar<br />

confusion with burlesque shows,<br />

Flanagan uses a broad spectrum of<br />

topics to reach her audience. One of<br />

her specials, Hello Kitty Flanagan, is<br />

currently streaming on Netflix. *<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [81]


ENTERTAINMENT<br />

Tale as Old<br />

Your Comprehensive Guide to the New Beauty and<br />

the Beast, and its Auxiliary Pop Culture Magic<br />

By Mia Blackman<br />

A mind map is a visual illustration of information that includes<br />

a central idea surrounded by connected branches of connected<br />

topics. Disney’s live-action version of the classic Beauty and the<br />

Beast will be released this March, and there is a lot of pop culture<br />

goodness out there to get you #HYPE. Whether it be the actors<br />

who bring the characters to life, or related books, movies and<br />

musicals, we are sure you’ll find something in this list to get you<br />

immersed in “a tale as old as time.”<br />

[82] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


as Time:<br />

The Cast<br />

Emma Watson<br />

Widely known for her portrayal as<br />

Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter<br />

series, Watson takes on the role of the<br />

brave Belle in the live-action rendition<br />

of Beauty and the Beast. After ending<br />

the Harry Potter series, she went on to<br />

act in several movies such as The Perks<br />

of being a Wallflower and The Bling<br />

Ring. Watson is also a big activist for<br />

women’s education and even completed<br />

her own, graduating from Brown with<br />

a degree in English literature. Along<br />

with Beauty and the Beast, Watson has<br />

another movie, which is a science-fiction<br />

drama called The Circle, set to release<br />

in April of this year.<br />

Dan Stevens<br />

A huge shift from his role as Matthew<br />

Crawley in the British drama<br />

television series Downton Abbey, Stevens<br />

has the distinct honor of bringing<br />

the Beast to life on the big screen. He<br />

began his career in theater with the<br />

role of Orlando in the Shakespearean<br />

play As You Like It, and has since performed<br />

in various plays, movies, and<br />

television series. Stevens has appeared<br />

in movies like Night at the Museum: Secret<br />

of the Tomb and A Walk Among the<br />

Tombstones plus has two more movies,<br />

Permission and Marshall, also set to be<br />

released in 2017.<br />

Luke Evans<br />

The Welsh actor and singer, who got<br />

his breakthrough role playing Apollo in<br />

Clash of the Titans, is bringing to life<br />

the character we all love to hate – the<br />

arrogant and athletic Gaston. Evans<br />

essentially began his career on stage<br />

and has appeared in many different<br />

productions including London’s West<br />

End shows Taboo, Rent, and Avenue Q.<br />

After starring in Clash of the Titans,<br />

he has been featured in a number of<br />

films including Dracula Untold, Furious<br />

7, and The Girl on the Train. He<br />

is currently filming Professor Marston<br />

& The Wonder Women, set to premiere<br />

later this year.<br />

Above: Emma Watson and Dan Stevens star in Beauty and the Beast / photo courtesy of Disney<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [83]


Romance Fantasy Books<br />

Poison Study<br />

A woman who is about to be executed<br />

for murder is given a choice: she<br />

can stay in lavish rooms and eat expensive<br />

food, but only if she becomes a<br />

food tester – a food tester for the commander<br />

of her country who happens to<br />

be wanted dead by several people. In a<br />

world where death is the consequence<br />

of a failed job, this novel written by<br />

Maria V. Snyder lets it be known that<br />

making choices may not always have<br />

such a clear outcome.<br />

The Curse of Chalion<br />

A damaged man has returned to the<br />

house he once served only to be named<br />

as the secretary-tutor to the sister of<br />

the boy who is next in line to rule the<br />

throne. <strong>No</strong>t only does he have to protect<br />

his student from enemies outside<br />

of the kingdom, but also face a dreaded<br />

curse that hangs over the heads of<br />

the royal family. The man must prove<br />

himself once again and enlist the help<br />

of the dark arts to prove his worth in<br />

this novel by Lois McMaster Bujold.<br />

Musicals<br />

The Lion King<br />

It’s the story of a brother betrayed.<br />

It’s the story of a king realizing his<br />

destiny. It’s a story that has been on<br />

Broadway for 14 years. The Lion King<br />

is a world-renowned Disney classic.<br />

The film first came to the stage in<br />

1997 and since then has had over 5,900<br />

performances and sold over 10 million<br />

tickets. Whether it be on the stage, on<br />

the screen or in a book the story that<br />

makes people sing their hearts out,<br />

this story will forever remain a classic.<br />

Wicked<br />

A story of two unlikely friends, the<br />

book-turned-musical is an alternate<br />

telling of The Wizard of Oz. It follows<br />

Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the<br />

West, and Galinda, the Good Witch,<br />

before and after Dorothy’s arrival to<br />

Oz. Through the musical, we see the<br />

characters struggle with their conflicting<br />

personalities and clash over a<br />

shared love interest. Wicked has shown<br />

over 5,120 shows, making it the 10th<br />

longest-running Broadway show.<br />

The Phantom of the Opera<br />

This is a tragic tale of love stunted<br />

by a man’s outward appearance.<br />

It is not Beauty and the Beast, but in<br />

fact a completely different tale. The<br />

Phantom of the Opera was first published<br />

in 1909 as a novel and has<br />

since been on both the screen and the<br />

stage. With its 7,486th show making<br />

the show the longest running show on<br />

Broadway, The Phantom continues to<br />

captivate audiences.<br />

[84] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


Emma Watson and Kevin Kline in Beauty and the Beast / photo courtesy of Disney<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [85]


More Disney<br />

Live-Action<br />

Cinderella<br />

Originally released in 1950 and<br />

based on the Brothers Grimm fairy<br />

tale, this romantic tale about a fashion<br />

mishap was taken to the big screen<br />

in 2015. Lily James plays Cinderella<br />

while Richard Madden plays Prince<br />

Charming in the beautifully crafted<br />

live-action film. The classic tale is<br />

brought into the 21st century while<br />

still keeping its romantic story and<br />

magical whim.<br />

Maleficent<br />

Based on the vindictive villain from<br />

Sleeping Beauty, the live-action film<br />

starring Angelina Jolie gives a very<br />

different twist on the classic tale. It’s<br />

a story of romance, betrayal and vengeance<br />

all wrapped in a visually stunning<br />

feature. It turns out the original<br />

story of Sleeping Beauty may not have<br />

been that simple all along.<br />

[86] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017


By Serena Bailey<br />

Hearing your favorite artist or band<br />

through your headphones is nice and<br />

blasting the music through your car<br />

speakers is great. But jamming in<br />

your bedroom could never compare<br />

to listening to your favorite musician<br />

live surrounded by hundreds of others<br />

who are just as hyped as you are. Here<br />

are our picks for the best upcoming<br />

concerts that are sure to excite your<br />

musical passions all over again.<br />

Bon Jovi at<br />

BJCC Legacy Arena<br />

Feb. 16: Iconic rock band Bon Jovi<br />

will be rocking the BJCC Legacy<br />

Arena at 8 p.m. on Feb. 16. This<br />

1983 American rock band is known<br />

for classics like “You Give Love a Bad<br />

Name” and “It’s My Life,” and this<br />

concert is sure to be a hit. Don’t be<br />

“Livin’ On a Prayer” for these tickets<br />

– the price begins at $35.25 and can be<br />

bought at ticketmaster.com.<br />

Eric Church at<br />

BJCC Legacy Arena<br />

Feb. 17: After more than a decade<br />

of creating country hits, Eric Church<br />

is known for hits like “Record<br />

Year,” “Drink in My Hand” and<br />

“Springsteen.” In February, Church<br />

will perform at 8 p.m. in the BJCC’s<br />

Legacy Arena, with tickets starting at<br />

$16 available at ticketmaster.com.<br />

Twenty One Pilots at<br />

BJCC Legacy Arena<br />

Feb. 24: The American musical<br />

duo Twenty One Pilots will be at the<br />

Legacy Area at the BJCC at 7 p.m.<br />

Founded in 2009, the group gained<br />

large success in 2015 with their track<br />

“Blurryface” and their appearance on<br />

the Suicide Squad movie soundtrack<br />

with the hit song “Heathens.” Don’t<br />

get too “stressed out” looking for<br />

tickets, because they are available on<br />

ticketmaster.com.<br />

The Lumineers at<br />

Infinite Energy Center<br />

March 8: After releasing their<br />

self-titled debut album in 2012, the<br />

Lumineers found large success that<br />

year with one of their best-known<br />

songs, “Ho Hey.” <strong>No</strong>w boasting hits<br />

like “Ophelia,” they perform this<br />

spring in Duluth, Georgia, at the<br />

Infinite Energy Center at 7 p.m.<br />

Tickets for the show start at $39.50<br />

and can be bought at tickets.axs.com.<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [87]


ENTERTAINMENT<br />

firekid<br />

Q&A<br />

By Ellen Johnson<br />

Combining urban sounds with<br />

traditional bluegrass music is no easy<br />

feat, but one Alabama native is out<br />

there doing it, and doing it well.<br />

Dillon Hodges—or firekid as he is<br />

known in the music world—originally<br />

hails from Muscle Shoals, Alabama.<br />

Hodges’ firekid achieves the marriage of<br />

contemporary and bluegrass, synth and<br />

urban, pop and acoustic. Hodges first<br />

discovered music as a young boy as he<br />

competed in guitar competitions around<br />

the country. <strong>No</strong>w, he and his guitar are<br />

all grown up and making music for<br />

the masses. He’s played Bonnaroo, the<br />

Hangout Fest and toured with Passion<br />

Pit, and along the way firekid is picking<br />

up speed and winning over audiences.<br />

We chatted with Hodges about life,<br />

music, guitar and, of course, Alabama.<br />

<strong>Alice</strong>: When did you first become<br />

interested in music and how did<br />

you first begin making music?<br />

Hodges: My first real experience with<br />

music was listening to my parents’<br />

southern gospel music in church and<br />

whatnot. I fell in love with guitar, and<br />

my next door neighbor offered to teach<br />

me. He was a bluegrass musician. I<br />

didn’t know anything about bluegrass<br />

music but it was my only option to learn<br />

[88] <strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017<br />

guitar. I would go over to his house<br />

once a week and stay for four or five<br />

hours and sort of obsess over guitar.<br />

He started taking me to bluegrass<br />

festivals around the state of Alabama. I<br />

also felt like I was kind of nobody at my<br />

elementary school and I felt like playing<br />

guitar made me cooler, and I think it<br />

did in some ways.<br />

What genre would you describe<br />

yourself as?<br />

Hodges: We’ve gotten play on Alt Nation,<br />

so that’s alt rock. I don’t know if I really<br />

easily, cleanly fall into one category or<br />

genre. I grew up making rural music,<br />

but the production of the firekid music<br />

is a lot more modern and urban … I feel<br />

like it’s an evolving thing. I don’t think<br />

I’ve cracked the code on the sounds yet.<br />

I think really more than anything, it’s<br />

my life goal to break the gap between<br />

urban and rural music.<br />

Where did “firekid” come from?<br />

Hodges: I was going to these things<br />

[bluegrass festivals] at 11 and 12 years<br />

old. I was by far the youngest person<br />

hanging out with these old codgers.<br />

They all called me “kid.” That was<br />

my nickname. Firekid was kind of a<br />

nickname that I carried around for a<br />

while. When I went out to [Los Angeles]<br />

to start working on what became the<br />

firekid project my producer called me<br />

“kid” and it just sort of stuck as a<br />

nickname. It didn’t feel necessarily<br />

right to just say Dillon Hodges, but<br />

firekid felt right.<br />

Who are your biggest musical<br />

inspirations?<br />

Hodges: The thing I’m shooting for<br />

hasn’t been done convincingly too many<br />

times. But I listen to a lot of the bluegrass<br />

traditional music. Ralph Stanley, Doc<br />

Watson, Tony Rice – those are kind of<br />

my favorite bluegrass musicians. Then<br />

on the other end of the spectrum I love<br />

like Broken Bells and Gorillaz and some<br />

of these sorts of bands who mix acoustic<br />

and electronic elements. So I try to pull<br />

from both sides, from the urban side<br />

of things and the more traditional side<br />

of things.<br />

Who inspired you growing up to<br />

pursue your dreams in music?<br />

Hodges: It’s kind of amazing. When I<br />

was going to these festivals some of them<br />

happened to be instrumental contests.<br />

So you compete on guitar against other<br />

guitarists of all ages. My parents really<br />

took to it to take me all over the country<br />

to these things. My parents were the<br />

ones that really enabled me to take it as<br />

far as it would go. I had mentors who


helped me as well, but my parents were<br />

the ones who gave me the ability and all<br />

the tools I needed to take it all the way.<br />

How has being from the South,<br />

specifically Alabama, influenced<br />

your music?<br />

Hodges: I saw a lot of the state growing<br />

up, not just Florence, Alabama, and<br />

Muscle Shoals where I grew up. When<br />

I was a sophomore in high school I just<br />

looked up for the first time and realized,<br />

“Hey, I live in Florence, where there is an<br />

amazing history of recorded music and<br />

artists.” I started listening and diving<br />

into the Muscle Shoals music catalogue.<br />

That’s when I really learned to love<br />

to sing.<br />

Where do you draw inspiration<br />

for songwriting?<br />

Hodges: My songs mostly come from<br />

conversations that I have with friends.<br />

It’s almost like a sickness that comes<br />

over me when I’m writing. When I’m<br />

in writing mode, I’ll just be having<br />

a conversation with someone and I’ll<br />

turn and write it down. Then I visit it<br />

later and turn it into a song. A lot of<br />

it comes from real life experiences and<br />

just casual conversations with friends.<br />

What is one of your favorite songs<br />

to perform and why?<br />

Hodges: Obviously people love when we<br />

do “Magic Mountain” or “Lay by Me.”<br />

I get a rise when I play “Americana<br />

Dream.” It’s a nice moment to have a<br />

conversation with a crowd. I always<br />

change the lyrics a little bit to fit the<br />

room I’m in, to fit the mood of the<br />

crowd. And it’s always fun because I<br />

never know what’s going to happen or<br />

how people will react.<br />

As a whole, how do you think<br />

bluegrass influences American<br />

music today?<br />

Hodges: I couldn’t believe it when I<br />

heard Mumford and Sons on the radio<br />

for the first time. I had this moment<br />

of thinking “Wait, bluegrass music<br />

could be cool?” I was going to school<br />

and trying to impress people with my<br />

playing bluegrass music. It felt like<br />

overnight, bands were successful. People<br />

were buying banjos. I certainly saw it<br />

firsthand. People are more acceptive to<br />

music like this now. It’s been made more<br />

approachable to them.<br />

What do you hope your fans get out<br />

of your music?<br />

Hodges: I hope it takes them to a<br />

place. I don’t want to dictate what<br />

their experience is, but I just hope it<br />

takes and removes them from whatever<br />

they’re living in. I hope it’s an escape<br />

for them. Really all I want is to create<br />

an atmosphere, an experience, with my<br />

music. I want to transport people, make<br />

them live in my world for a minute.<br />

-<br />

Throughout the winter of 2016,<br />

Hodges has been taking a break from<br />

touring and instead preparing to work<br />

on his second album. In the meantime,<br />

his self-titled album firekid is available<br />

on iTunes and to stream on Spotify.<br />

Artist<br />

Fun Fact<br />

As a native of northwest Alabama, Hodges has performed<br />

at many local restaurants, festivals and more in the Shoals<br />

area. The sketch on the left was drawn by an audience member<br />

during Hodge’s 2012 lunchtime performance at the Trojan<br />

House, a sandwich shop located in Muscle Shoals. That<br />

audience member’s name is Maria Oswalt — who now serves<br />

as the creative director for <strong>Alice</strong>. Oswalt fondly remembers<br />

attending many of Hodge’s performances growing up in the<br />

Shoals. It’s a small world!<br />

<strong>Alice</strong> Spring 2017 [89]

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