Daily Bruin – Page 268

Second Take: ‘The Bachelor’ promotes toxic double standards of sexuality

They say “sex sells,” but it seems like a lack of sex is what’s selling the latest season of “The Bachelor.”

Colton Underwood – who has dubbed himself “The First Virgin Bachelor” – is a personable former NFL tight end who was just tangled in a love triangle with two girls on the latest seasons of “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise.” In other words, he’s not exactly what most people picture when they hear the words “27-year-old virgin.”

It would be hard to argue that “The Bachelor” reflects reality, despite its label as reality television. Most relationships don’t start with 30 contestants vying for a rose at the end of the night, just to secure another day at a secluded mansion with someone they’ve just met.

Despite “The Bachelor” operating in a clearly manufactured world, the attitudes toward sex reflected on the show and by its fans are representative of a problematic reality in which having sex – or not having sex – elicits distinctly different responses depending on gender.

Underwood’s virginity has been met with a fair bit of skepticism. Corinne Olympios, a contestant on season 21 of “The Bachelor,” has publicly proclaimed she believes Underwood is lying about his virginity. In a similar vein, a shirtless picture of Underwood on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” prompted Jimmy Kimmel to say, “I mean look at that. That’s not a virgin.” Billy Eichner even suggested that Underwood might be the first gay Bachelor.

This widespread response to an attractive man claiming he’s a virgin – that he must either be lying or be gay – is indicative of larger ideologies about sex that exist in American culture.

A study published by the Sexual and Relationship Therapy journal in 2016 analyzing male attitudes toward sex and virginity surveyed 34 men aged 18 to 24 years old who identified as either virgins, non-virgins or gave no identification. Their responses reflect the ideology that women are virgins by virtue of choice whereas men are only virgins due to a lack of opportunities. This notion that virginity is something a woman gives away but a man has to take perpetuates the harmful “stud vs. slut” narrative, in which men are valorized for sleeping around while women are degraded for the same behavior.

Underwood’s experience highlights these attitudes, as he admitted in an interview with “The Bachelor” host Chris Harrison that he’s been told that he’s not a man because he’s still a virgin. And Underwood isn’t alone in being subjected to these judgements of character throughout his experience on “The Bachelor” and its spinoffs.

It’s true that “The Bachelor” recently made strides in combating harmful sexual behavior, giving airtime to Caelynn Miller-Keyes’ recount of being sexually assaulted and providing the number for the national sexual assault hotline in the latest episode. However, it’s important to note that the show is no stranger to excusing and perpetuating this toxic culture as well.

The show has a history of shaming women who dare to have sex before the Fantasy Suite episode, when the final three contestants are often invited to accompany the Bachelor or Bachelorette to a bedroom without cameras. Kaitlyn Bristowe, who appeared on the 11th season of “The Bachelorette” in 2015, broke Bachelor tradition by sleeping with Nick Viall after their first official date of the show. She received death threats over the internet, and was labeled as selfish, pathetic and a whore. The producers built a business model off this perceived sex scandal, prohibiting Bristowe from eliminating Viall later in the season and forcing her to take him to the final episode. This is a show that builds its viewership off scandal – and there’s nothing wrong with creating a little drama. It’s when producers value the scandal around sex more than the safety of contestants that their business model becomes problematic.

On the most recent season of “The Bachelorette,” producers casted Lincoln Adim, who was convicted of indecent assault and battery in May 2018 for groping a woman. Production claimed to have no knowledge of the incident, but considering charges against Adim were filed in 2016, it’s hard to believe they conducted a very thorough background check.

This misogynistic treatment of women regarding sexual behavior is even more troubling in light of the current storyline of Underwood’s season of “The Bachelor.” Underwood’s virginity has been mentioned over 40 times in just four episodes, according to Bustle.com’s running tally. It has become a kind of inside joke with host Harrison saying his job this season is to ensure Underwood doesn’t leave the show a virgin. Underwood’s sex life is talked about candidly and excitedly by the cast and fans alike as it drives the plot, whereas Bristowe’s – among a number of other female contestants’ who have been criticized for being too promiscuous – is mentioned with hints of disgust and disappointment. Bristowe was forced to endure Harrison read off a barrage of tweets harassing her on a “The Men Tell All” special episode following her season.

The actions on the “The Bachelor” and the responses they elicit reflect cultural norms: A nod to the #MeToo movement in the latest episode was a nod to a shift in the treatment of sexual assault in American culture. But when male contestants are still urged to lose their virginity or be dubbed a joke, and female contestants are forced to either be sexually restrained or called a slut, it begs the question: How much has sex culture in America actually changed?

Play looks into girls’ expectations, reality in responding to sexual misconduct

There’s a gulf between how someone thinks they’ll react to a certain situation and how they actually react, said playwright Anna Moench. Real confrontations are often complicated by power structures and imbalances.

Exploring that gap is central to “Man of God,” which premieres Thursday at East West Players’ David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles. The play tells the story of four girls who go on a mission trip to Thailand with their pastor, only to discover that he has placed a camera in their bathroom. They grapple with the situation, each imagining how they would exact revenge. The play stars Roy Vongtama, who completed his medical residency in radiation oncology at UCLA, as the titular pastor, and explores prescient social questions, including how perpetrators of sexual misconduct should be punished and how cyclical the issue can be.

“The play is very much about growing up in rape culture and coming to a kind of cognizance of that fact as a young woman, which I think that every woman in our country has to become aware of at some point,” Moench said.

“When this is the culture that we live in and this is the world that we live in, it’s kind of hard for me to accept when people say, ‘Well, why didn’t you just say something?’” Moench said. “If over your lifetime, all you’ve seen is this kind of things happen and not get dealt with properly and get swept under the rug and ignored and erased, then why would I say (anything)? Why would anyone say anything?”

When director Jesca Prudencio first read the play, she finished it in one night, sending Moench a long email detailing her thoughts and reactions the next morning. Prudencio felt like she recognized her high school self in different elements of the four girls and connected with the play’s exploration of reacting to intense situations and redefining bravery, she said.

“As an Asian-American woman, I think how we deal with authority, … how we wrestle with that, is an ongoing issue,” Prudencio said. “Why I love this play so much is that it looks at that complication. … There are different ways to fight and I think this play looks at a lot of those ways, of what that strength is, what a victim or a survivor’s strength really is, (and) defining strength.”

Vongtama was also drawn to the play’s complexity, specifically the fraught relationship between the expectations of who a pastor is and the reality of the character’s actions. In addition to acting, Vongtama works as a doctor, and said he connected with the way in which both pastors and doctors are held up as saviors, and the fact that even those placed on a pedestal can still disappoint us. The connection served as an entry point to a character who was reprehensible, but still human, Vongtama said.

“The danger is to play him as a stereotype and … my challenge is to play the character real,” Vongtama said. “But in the same sense, he’s done something wrong and the question is, I think, a societal question. … When someone does something like that that’s bad, what does it deserve – does it deserve forgiveness, punishment, justice?”

The question of what the pastor deserves is explored through a series of revenge fantasy sequences that play out on stage. Though the fantasies are satisfying to watch, they’re also a representation of the expectations placed on survivors in terms of how they should react to trauma, Moench said.

“The fantasies are all taken from film genres of stories that essentially mostly male filmmakers give to us about what female revenge looks like or should look like. There’s a damage to that narrative because that’s not realistic,” Moench said. “You cannot apply that when you’re in a situation like this – you can’t vault into the air and kick him in the face.”

The fantasies range from a martial arts style sequence to a “Law & Order”-esque detective fantasy, and Prudencio said they serve as a chance to inject some visual creativity and comedy into the dark storyline. As Prudencio directed those scenes, she kept in mind the way in which the actions represented the blurring line between fantasy and reality by constantly breaking the rules and surprising the audience, Prudencio said.

Though “Man of God” deals with serious subject matter, it’s also characterized by the dark comedy of the intense fantasies, as well as the dynamic between the four girls as their personalities clash. Maintaining the balance was important, particularly in making sure the story reflected the nuances of reality, Prudencio said.

“There’s a lot of humor in reality, even in the toughest moments,” Prudencio said. “I personally connect to the dark comedy the most in my work because it actually feels the most real to me. … In life, we find a lot of humor in the seriousness.”

Men’s basketball gets second road win 87-67 against Washington State

The Bruins have their second road win of the season.

UCLA men’s basketball (12-9, 5-3 Pac-12) cruised to an 87-67 victory over Washington State (8-13, 1-7) on Wednesday night for its second straight win. It was also the Bruins’ fifth straight win over the Cougars.

UCLA shot a blistering 59 percent from the floor, and knocked down nine of its 19 attempts from deep.

The Bruins, however, did not break the game open until the second half, where they outscored the Cougars 43-30.

Five different players scored in double figures for UCLA.

Redshirt junior guard Prince Ali, sophomore guard Kris Wilkes and freshman center Moses Brown each scored 16 points.

The Bruins also hit 18 of their 24 attempts from the free throw line and turned the ball over just 11 times.

Washington State was led by forwards Robert Franks and CJ Elleby, who combined for 36 of the team’s 67 points on 14-of-30 shooting.

The loss marked just the second time all season in which the Cougars have lost at home. They entered the contest with an 8-1 home record.

UCLA will next head to Seattle to take on Washington (16-4, 7-0), which has yet to lose a conference game this season.

Men’s basketball leads Washington State 44-37 at half time away

The Bruins are off to a quick start in Washington.

UCLA men’s basketball (11-9, 4-3 Pac-12) leads Washington State (8-12, 1-6) 44-37 at the half in the opening contest of a two-game road swing to the Northwest.

Despite the Cougars holding the Bruins scoreless for the game’s first three minutes, UCLA finished the half shooting 57 percent from the floor. The Bruins also connected on 7 of their 12 attempts from beyond the arc.

Freshman center Moses Brown leads the Bruins in scoring with eight points on 3-of-4 shooting. He also hauled in three rebounds and converted on both of his free throw attempts.

Washington State forward Robert Franks kept the Cougars within striking distance by scoring 15 points in the opening 20 minutes, including three 3-pointers on four attempts.

Washington State has only lost once at home this season in nine games. If UCLA holds on to win the game, it would be just its second road win of the year.

The Quad: The impact of influencer culture on marketing, social media and UCLA’s campus

Back in 2012, the cosmetics brand CoverGirl selected the popular Colombian-American actress Sofia Vergara as its new ambassador.

Four years later, teenage YouTube makeup guru James Charles became the brand’s first CoverBoy.

Celebrity ambassadorships were the original method of influencer marketing before marketing trends turned.

Influencer marketing is a technique that orients marketing methods and activities around influential people rather than the target market as a whole on social media. Modern-day marketing has been turning toward regular content creators with niche audiences to lead the endorsement of brands.

According to Jelle Fastenau’s article “Under the Influence: The Power of Social Media Influencers,” marketers were predicted to invest an average budget of approximately $25,000 to $50,000 into various different influencer campaigns in 2018. With an average of $7.65 in earned media value returned for every dollar spent on influencer marketing, the numbers truly do speak for themselves.

Because social media has made influencers so pervasive, brands have been using those with relevant interests and a large internet presence as the face of their advertisements.

According to Forbes, consumers are becoming increasingly skeptical of companies and their marketing techniques. As opposed to distant celebrities, influencers allow brands to promote through a sense of trust that has been built between the influencer and a specialized community.

Charles, who leveraged his massive social media presence into a brand deal, is just one of a growing number of social media influencers who have established credibility in a particular industry through access to a large audience of online users.

Social media influencers are not limited to one type of person – there are even influencers that are students at UCLA.

Fourth-year biochemistry student Vivian Yu has gained a strong internet audience over the years. While Yu originally started her Instagram account as a lifestyle page, she has shifted to posting more medicine-related content and posts about daily life as a pre-medical student at UCLA to her 175,000 followers.

Yu posts photos showcasing her daily routines and study tips, with captions that engage with her audience in the form of questions like “What are some challenging courses you guys are taking this semester?” These posts are primarily targeted toward other students who are pursuing a career in health care.

Yu’s trajectory shows how influencer marketing finds its success in its organic audience that is invested in the life of the influencer as well as their recommendations and opinions on brands, which seem more like “word-of-mouth recommendations on a world stage” rather than advertisements.

Similar to Yu, Jessica Lee, a second-year economics student, began curating her own audience organically through Instagram. A year ago, she posted a photo of herself at a subway station in Hong Kong and made it to the Instagram “Explore” page, resulting in a sudden rush of comments, follows and likes from users who became interested in Lee’s content. Today, she holds a following of over 84,000 users.

The easy accessibility and low stakes of social media make the lifestyle of an influencer a lot more flexible to uphold, as the influencer ultimately maintains it according to their own terms and conditions. How an influencer chooses to integrate their platform into their life varies from person to person.

Yu says that maintaining a social media account does not largely interfere with her personal or school life. Ultimately, she controls her flow of content, and can choose to post less consistently during midterms or finals week, which is convenient for a busy student like herself.

On the other hand, UCLA alumna Cindy Thai turned her busiest moments as a student into her own form of creative content. Known for her YouTube channel titled infinitelycindy, Thai took daily video-logs or “daily vlogs” for an entire year, showcasing intimate details of her life as a UCLA student.

“I was vlogging my study all-nighters, lectures, the walk to class, college parties and everything else in between,” Thai said. “Being a social media influencer, … you constantly are sharing and being plugged in to everything that is happening in your niche or category.”

While the work of social media influencers is amounted to a creative vlog on YouTube or a high-quality picture on Instagram, the behind-the-scenes processes in terms of brand communication and exchanges are widely unknown to those that are unfamiliar with the industry.

Companies will often reach out to influencers via direct-message on Instagram or email if they believe that this influencer can represent their products and overall brand vision well. Influencers will similarly reach out personally to specific brands that catch their interest.

When Yu communicates with brands, she sends brands her media kit, which includes her rates and how much she charges per post, and looks at their company contract as well. After the contract is signed, companies will send out their products attached with their guidelines for the post. After Yu’s post is live, she sends them an invoice.

Being a social media influencer in the limelight of the digital world often means that extra work and maintenance must be put into finding and capturing the aesthetic in the daily moments of our lives.

Fourth-year economics student Ally Gong, a fashion, travel and lifestyle Instagrammer, said this search for the perfect photo opportunity means she always carries outfit changes and extra accessories and makeup available for use when traveling.

In the digital age, it’s clear that social media and influencer marketing are becoming more relevant than ever. Perhaps most importantly, the audience perception of social media and influencer marketing is changing and transparency and honesty are being prioritized more than ever.

Thai said she values her relationship with her audience and is very strict with what brands she works with, leading her to respectfully turn down around 80 percent to 90 percent of the inquiries she gets her inbox and only working with brands she genuinely likes or is interested in.

“Generation Z is incredibly smart and can sense sponsored posts – even though it is now the norm, they can sense what is authentic, which requires better brand and influencer deals for social campaigns,” Thai said.

The multibillion-dollar industry of influencer marketing has undoubtedly opened up many doors to new experiences and professional opportunities that could not be found in other industries. While some influencers maintain their social media accounts purely as a hobby, an increasing number of Instagrammers and YouTubers have been making a full-time career in content creation.

“It can be difficult when people don’t respect the work of influencers, who often have to juggle this career with another job or studies,” Lee said. “But at the end of the day, being an influencer is so rewarding to my future career aspirations, and I have so much fun doing it.”

Cooking with Chemistry: From bacteria to baking, the unique reactions that beget bread

Chemistry as a science sounds like something that should strictly be confined to a laboratory with poisonous toxins and exploding reactions, but as it turns out, most labs aren’t quite like that. In fact, the most important laboratory is found in every home: the kitchen. Understanding the complex processes that go on in the kitchen allow us to go further than the recipe to improve our cooking.

Bread has risen to a nearly sacred status within society. Its importance can hardly be understated considering the fact that it has been staple food for thousands of years. The word “companion” literally means “with bread.”

From a scientific perspective, the bread-making process is a fascinating chemical phenomenon. Bread is essentially a type of foam, or a phase mixture of gas and solid that forms a rigid structure with the proteins found in flour.

Is this gluten-free?

Before thinking about the science, let’s understand what exactly goes on in the kitchen. The basic process is going to be the same for all types of bread: mixing flour, yeast and warm water. Bakers add in other ingredients, like salt or oil, to change the texture, flavor and vitality of the bread. Mixing the components forms dough, which a baker will typically knead before throwing it into an oven.

Now that we know the process, let’s take the chemistry step by step.

Flour, which is just powdered wheat, is composed of several crucial ingredients to the bread-making process. Starch, a huge molecule that is constructed from simple glucose molecules, is a sugar that makes up about 70 percent of the flour. The remaining 30 percent – the various proteins that constitute the rest of the flour – is vitally important for bread-making, especially two proteins known as gliadin and glutenin. Proteins have numerous unique properties, but the ones we care about in cooking are their sensitive structures and their interaction with water.

It is the mixing of flour and water that creates the basic architecture that we know as bread. Instead of dissolving in water, gliadin and glutenin absorb it, unfolding in a rather complicated manner. The interconnected mixture that they form is what we know as gluten, which forms the structural framework for bread. Kneading the dough continues to cause the proteins to unfold, eventually turning from long fibers into wide sheets.

If we wanted to get technical, we can say that we formed a viscoelastic solid, or a material that flows like liquid but is also stretchy like a rubber band. Otherwise, we call it dough. We can attribute its mechanical properties to the gluten network that formed while kneading. The more we knead, the more proteins tighten with each other, improving the resistance of our solid. Knead too much, and the gluten tightens so much that the dough tears easily.

On the rise

The gluten in dough absorbs water and forms a tough solid that looks like sheets on the molecular level. In doing this, we are slowly but surely building the structure and consistency of the bread. This process includes one other ingredient that we haven’t discussed yet – yeast.

Yeast is quite literally bacteria used as a cooking ingredient. Its purpose is to produce gas – specifically carbon dioxide – as a waste product from eating starch. In particular, damaged starch crystals serve as an energy source for yeast to feast on due to the fact that damaged starch is smaller and mixes better with water than large granules. Too much damaged starch and the dough has a tendency to get sticky and gassy due to too much water being absorbed.

The process of producing gas in bread is known as leavening, but what actually prevents the gas from escaping? The answer is the gluten sheets that formed from kneading the bread, effectively forming a trap for any gases that might be forming. Hence, dough is a type of foam, which is a combination of gas and solid phases. The gas bubbles end up forming the pores that we see in bread.

Thermal treatment of a viscoelastic solid

Once all the gas is built up and the dough is nice and tough, the last thing left to do is bake it. In the oven, gluten will release the absorbed water and transfer it to the starch, leaving a rigid gluten structure behind.

The brown color of bread is due to a particular chemical reaction known as the Maillard reaction. This is a particular interaction between amino acids on a protein and the sugars that are present in many foods including steak, dumplings, cookies and, of course, bread.

The starch that absorbs the water from gluten degrades. In particular, the granules leech out a chain of glucose known as amylose. This particular molecule is interesting because when baked bread cools down, amylose begins to crystallize in a process known as retrodegradation. This is what causes bread to become stale – not a lack of water as one might think, but instead crystals growing on bread.

Adjusting bread parameters

There are a variety of different variables we can adjust to produce different types of breadlike products. We can replace wheat flour with different types of flour and look for different sources of gas.

Instead of relying on gas production from bacteria, a baker can use chemical leavening agents such as sodium bicarbonate or baking soda. Baking soda is a crystal that dissolves particularly well in the presence of an acid, releasing carbon dioxide in the process. Typical acids include lemons or vinegar. Utilizing chemical leavening agents is faster than waiting around for bacteria to eat up sugars, crucial for desserts such as cookies and pancakes.

If we replace our usual bacteria with a different species, we may produce sourdough bread. Typical bread uses baker’s yeast, a particular species that leavens bread fairly quickly. Sourdough relies on wild yeast and lactobacilli, both species that take a bit longer to leaven. With careful preparation to leaven the bread, the result is the production of lactic acid, which leads to the sour taste.

What happens if we don’t leaven the bread at all? Well, the bread just won’t rise. In fact, this is exactly what tortillas are: unleavened bread made from either wheat or corn flour.

For our gluten-free friends, we need some sort of substitute to replicate the same structural purpose of gluten. Since gluten is a combination of proteins unique to wheat, the solution is to replace wheat flour with flour from another type of grain such as corn or rice.

Bread is a miraculous feat of human ingenuity. While there may be many types of flour products we encounter, the basic chemistry is the same. Understanding the purpose of each ingredient and their interactions is important to creating the best breads.

Student groups unite to celebrate Latino culture at first Noche de Ritmo

The first annual Noche de Ritmo brought together mariachi music, traditional dancing and chicken and cheese tamales.

Organized by the Latino Greek Council, the event was held Tuesday night in Bruin Plaza. The LGC has previously hosted a similar culture night called Bienvenida, said Jeannette Mendivil, a fourth-year sociology student and president of the council. Bienvenida, however, only included Latino sororities, fraternities and the council, never extending to other Latinogonza interest groups on campus. Noche de Ritmo, Mendivil said, was conceived with the goal of expanding the LGC’s networks with other organizations, such as cultural clubs and academic resource providers, all while honoring Latino tradition.

“We thought this would be a great opportunity to co-program, get to know other orgs and really celebrate our culture, the Latinx identity,” Mendivil said.

Noche de Ritmo opened with Mendivil addressing attendees from the stage in Bruin Plaza, which was decorated with a banner of traditional Mexican papel picado – or perforated paper – designs on colorful sheets. Along the stage stood tables, each representing one of the organizations present. Fabiola Santiago, a second-year English student and the cultural affairs chair for the Lambda Theta Nu sorority, said various Greek chapters attended the event to support each other by uniting over shared Latino heritage.

Outside of the Greek chapters represented, multiple extracurricular, professional and academic groups were also present at the event to talk about their initiatives. These included La Raza Law Students Association, Latinx Film and Theatre Association and Fitness Improvement Training through Exercise and Diet, a student-run program that provides free fitness training and nutritional support on campus. Graduate law students Andrea Gonzalez and Bridget Spencer of La Raza said their organization aids students with academic support, networking and career opportunities. They chose to be at Noche de Ritmo because their efforts to strengthen a broader community entail being more involved on campus, particularly with undergraduate students, they said.

“Essentially, since there’s not a lot of Latino students (at the law school), we try to build community and support each other through the difficult processes of law school,” Gonzalez said.

Other clubs honored Latino culture and history through performance. Mariachi de Uclatlan, for instance, performed two numbers while members of Grupo Folklórico de UCLA presented traditional dances hailing from different regions of Mexico. For instance, Merlene Alonso, a member of Grupo Folklórico, represented the state of Chiapas dressed in a black gown embroidered with flowers and squares. Her outfit, like those of her co-dancers, was complete with matching purple and scarlet flowers in her hair and closed-toe white shoes typically used in ballroom dances, she said. Performing at Noche de Ritmo was a way for the fourth-year Latin American studies student to pay homage to her family and its roots.

“My mom used to dance when she was younger and I always wanted to be more connected with her and my culture,” Alonso said. “Coming to UCLA, it felt like I had separated myself from my Latino heritage, so I just wanted to join (Grupo Folklórico) and learn traditional dancing.”

While the primary aim of Noche de Ritmo was to honor Latino culture, Mendivil said it was open to students of all ethnic backgrounds. She took the stage to announce that proceeds from the ongoing tamales sale would go toward an upcoming scholarship that anyone on campus will be eligible for, regardless of race or background. Santiago said the event acted as an effective way to bridge the gap between groups on campus, Latino and otherwise.

“Today, we’re just here for the Greek community aspect,” she said. “(We’re here) to promote our culture on campus, and to help reduce the divide there is between organizations, between councils and between everybody here.”