Counterpoint

The Wellesley College Journal of Campus Life

  • Home
  • About
    • About Counterpoint
    • Submission & CW Policies
    • Staff
  • Writing
    • All Articles
    • Arts & Culture
    • Campus Life
    • Identity
    • Mental Health
    • Politics
    • Poetry
  • Crossword
  • Poll
  • Covers
  • FAQ
  • Archives
    • '07 - '23
    • '23 - Present
  • Contact Us

Virginia's Curse

April 20, 2018 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture

By Samantha English '19

Don’t—no matter what anyone tells you—go to St. Ives in a snowstorm.

Read More
April 20, 2018 /Editor-in-Chief
St. Ives, Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, study abroad
Arts & Culture
Comment

A Hero I Can Believe In

February 23, 2018 by Editor-in-Chief in , Arts & Culture

By Anonymous

Content warning: description of depressive episode

Spoiler alert: you should probably watch Black Panther before reading this.

I wasn’t prepared for Black Panther. It gave me something new to believe in.

This is not an origin story, and it’s not a typical superhero story. The Black Panther isn’t tasked with saving the world. The film is full of difficult questions and is unapologetically black. Ryan Coogler shows off blackness in all its complexity—as a diaspora.

Read More
February 23, 2018 /Editor-in-Chief
black panther, ryan coogler, michael b jordan, marvel, chadwick boseman, comic books, representation, diversity, wakanda, superheros, film, mcu, students of color
, Arts & Culture
1 Comment

Are You There God? It's Me, Jake Peralta

February 23, 2018 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture

By Abby Schneider '21

For y'all unaware of the greatest television show of all time, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a sitcom about the shenanigans that the police detectives get up to in a fictionalized version of Brooklyn's 99th precinct. The show first aired in 2013 and has been wildly successful amongst twenty-somethings and college students ever since. Created by Michael Schur (The Office, Parks and Recreation, The Good Place) and Dan Goor (Parks and Recreation, The Daily Show, Conan), the show seamlessly incorporates pop culture, millennial humor, and even addresses current, culturally relevant issues without morphing into a drama.

Read More
February 23, 2018 /Editor-in-Chief
brooklyn nine-nine, brooklyn 99, b99, andy samberg, dan goor, michael shur, comedy, representation, diversity, lgbt, television
Arts & Culture
Comment

I'm Sorry I'm Not Perfect

February 23, 2018 by Editor-in-Chief in , Arts & Culture, Identity

By Olivia Funderburg '18

Overall, I was left with a burning question: what if Lady Bird had really pushed boundaries? What if the film took its mother-daughter story and complicated it?

Read More
February 23, 2018 /Editor-in-Chief
lady bird, greta grewig, oscars, saoirse ronan, film, mother-daughter, race, representation, golden globes, students of color
, Arts & Culture, Identity
Comment

Shipwrecked

December 13, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture, Mental Health, Identity

By Samantha English

Content warning: mention of anxiety, depression, and emotional abuse

I fell in love with the Brontë sisters when I was sixteen. I read Wuthering Heights in a slow-churning tempest of terror and intrigue, Cathy’s ghost lingering over my shoulder as I drew complex family trees of the Earnshaw and Linton families at my kitchen table. I carried my black-penned copy of Emily’s singular work to you, Wellesley, where it sat watching me, witchlike, waiting to be joined by its sister novels. It didn’t take long. By my second semester, I was in the Nineteenth Century Novel class, combing obsessively through Jane Eyre. I wasn’t just hooked. I was haunted.

Read More
December 13, 2017 /Editor-in-Chief
jane eyre, charlotte bronte, villette, ann bronte, english literature, english major, anxiety, depression, emotional abuse, books
Arts & Culture, Mental Health, Identity
1 Comment

On Taylor Swift's Art and Actions

November 27, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture

By Olivia Funderburg

Content warning: mention of sexual assault

My first Counterpoint article was about Taylor Swift. I was a first-year trying to figure out how to be a college student; now I’m a senior trying to come to terms with the person who I’ve become. On the eve of the next Taylor Swift album—and wondering if it could be the last—I’m sitting down to write about her again. I’ve never been in a serious (or really any) romantic relationship, so the reason I like Taylor’s music isn’t that I relate to most of it. I definitely didn’t start listening to her music because I’m a country fan. You can’t really choose who you love. If you could, I don’t know if I would have chosen Taylor.

Read More
November 27, 2017 /Editor-in-Chief
music, taylor swift, reputation, 1989, speak now, red, fearless, activism.
Arts & Culture
Comment

Kamala Khan: The Ms.-Ing Piece of the Marvel Universe

October 31, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Identity, Arts & Culture

By Padya Paramita

Content warning: mention of Nazis

On the day after the 2016 US presidential elections, a queer international student of color found herself at a comic book store face-to-face with a superhero she had never seen before. In encountering Kamala Khan—known by her superhero alias, Ms. Marvel—I discovered a girl much like myself: brown, Muslim, fighting demons, trying to find a balance between Americanization and her South Asian roots.

Read More
October 31, 2017 /Editor-in-Chief
comic books, superheros, ms marvel, representation, muslim american, women of color, students of color
Identity, Arts & Culture
Comment

Three Flakes, Then Four: John Green's Turtles All the Way Down

October 31, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Mental Health, Arts & Culture

By Samantha English

Content warnings: description of anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder

When I was fourteen years old, I bought The Fault in Our Stars at a Barnes and Noble in Darien, Illinois. It was a hot summer weekend, and I spent the afternoon in my grandmother's air-conditioned basement curled up on a blow-up mattress, falling in love with John Green's most recent novel of the time.

Read More
October 31, 2017 /Editor-in-Chief
obsessive compulsive disorder, books, john green, turtles all the way down, anxiety, the fault in our stars
Mental Health, Arts & Culture
1 Comment

Falling (Back) in Love with Peter Parker

September 27, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture

By Samantha English and Olivia Funderburg

Content warning: implication of anxiety and claustrophobia

Disclaimer: If you haven’t seen Spider-Man: Homecoming or Captain America: Civil War, read with caution.

The original Spider-Man was created in 1962 by Stan Lee, who had noticed a rise in teen comic book readers and a lack of teen comic book characters. Most Marvel characters were adults at the time—take, for instance, Iron Man and Captain America, who both have origin stories linked to war even if their comics were written with a young audience in mind. Lee wanted a teen character that young people could identify with. He created Peter Parker, a fifteen-year-old New Yorker who loved science, was the victim of high school bullying, and, because of a radioactive spider-bite, spent his after-school hours protecting people on the streets of Queens in a mask and spandex.

When Marvel decided to incorporate the character of Spider-Man into the complex, multi-character, multimillion-dollar Cinematic Universe, the company finally took Peter Parker back to his roots

Read More
September 27, 2017 /Editor-in-Chief
new york city, spider-man, superheros, comic books, spider-man: homecoming, tom holland, zendaya, marvel, mcu, captain america: civil war, diversity, representation
Arts & Culture
Comment

The Hate U Give: A Mirror and a Window

May 03, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture, Identity

By Olivia Funderburg

The Hate U Give follows 16-year old Starr Carter as she navigates the ins and outs of being a teenager: from friendships and sometimes fighting to boyfriends and maybe taking the next step. But Starr’s life is more complicated than some 16-year olds’ are. She has to navigate living between two worlds: the black neighborhood she calls home and the elite, predominately white high school she attends. Starr’s life quickly becomes even more complicated when she is the only witness when her childhood best friend Khalil, unarmed, is killed by a cop.

Read More
May 03, 2017 /Editor-in-Chief
the hate u give, angie thomas, diversity, representation, we need diverse books, books, black lives matter, people of color, women of color
Arts & Culture, Identity
Comment

La La Land: On Reconciling Art and Erasure

February 23, 2017 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture, Identity

By Kele Alfred-Igbokwe '19

Content warning: mentions of racism

The film crushed my heart with the wistfulness of love lost over the course of chasing dreams, of the sacrifices of creative drive. 

Throughout the film, however, my mind was bogged down by an incessant observation: all the people of color (except John Legend’s character) were in the background as amorphous jazz music machines. The thing is, they had presences as brilliant jazz musicians, but they had almost no speaking roles, didn’t drive the story, and were only there to supplement the main characters, who were almost all white. The film was centered around two white characters, while subsequently using people of color as musical props. 

Read More
February 23, 2017 /Editor-in-Chief
film, la la land, representation, oscars, golden globes, moonlight, people of color, students of color
Arts & Culture, Identity
Comment

A Very Unfortunate Article

December 16, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture

by Elizabeth Taft '18 and Samantha English '19

Content warnings: mention of child abuse, sexual assault, death

“I’m sorry,” Larry says, interrupting your loud interviewer. “I didn’t realize this was a sad occasion.”

Your interviewer looks up at him in annoyance. “What are you talking about? I already told you, we’ll have two Cheer-Up Cheeseburgers.”

You, however, meet the clown’s eyes. This is the moment you have been waiting █or.

“The world is quiet here.”

Read More
December 16, 2016 /Editor-in-Chief
Arts & Culture
4 Comments

Wild Wendies

November 28, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Campus Life, Arts & Culture

Images and text by Franzi Ross

Frog hurriedly grabs a snack from a symposium lunch they did not attend.

Read More
November 28, 2016 /Editor-in-Chief
Campus Life, Arts & Culture
Comment

Everything What's Wrong of Haunted Houses

October 25, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Who's to Say, Identity, Arts & Culture

By Allyson Larcom ’17

Content warning: mention of bugs

The first time I ever went to a haunted house, I was twelve years old and I both cried and peed myself. I figure this is probably average childbeast behavior, it still feels like I was somehow wronged.

The question, “What don’t you like about haunted houses, Ally?” can be answered summarily and thus: MUCH. 

Read More
October 25, 2016 /Editor-in-Chief
Who's to Say
Who's to Say, Identity, Arts & Culture
1 Comment

An Ode to Counterpoint and the Power of Storytelling

May 10, 2016 by Editor-in-Chief in Arts & Culture

By Cecilia Nowell '16

In the film The Lives of Others, there is a scene where an East German artist plays “Sonata for a Good Man” for his wife while a Stasi secret police captain listens in through a surveillance system. After finishing the piece, the artist ponders aloud, “could art have the power to make people good?” The implication is that listening to the “Sonata for a Good Man” might not only have made the artist a better person, but also the eavesdropping German spy. After watching The Lives of Others, I found myself entranced by this question—could art make people good?—and couldn’t help but wonder if art might have other powers as well. Could art make people kinder, stronger, more resilient, maybe even braver?

Read More
May 10, 2016 /Editor-in-Chief
Arts & Culture
Comment
  • Newer
  • Older

Contact Us | FAQ