Hulu’s television series “The Handmaid’s Tale” has recently brought feminist speculative fiction back to the forefront of culture. Margaret Atwood continues to inspire many readers with the original novel, including up and coming author Naomi Alderman.

In 2016, Alderman released her fourth novel, “The Power,” which was dedicated to and influenced by Atwood. The novel has had tremendous literary success, winning the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2017. Alderman has also signed a contract permitting the novel, which has been labeled as an essential modern feminist work, to be a TV series, following in the footsteps of Atwood.

The Power is framed as a pop history book written hundreds of years in the future that looks back on a present-day world where women and girls have developed the ability to send electricity through their hands. As these women learn to control their new ability, revolts occur across the world, especially in third world countries. As the women grow more and more powerful, they become the dominant gender, essentially reversing thousands of years of traditional gender roles.

Throughout the novel, Alderman follows the narratives of four unique characters. First is Ally, who after killing her cruel foster father with her newfound father, becomes “Mother Eve,” the leader of a feminist religion that honors a female God. Next is Roxy, the powerful and feisty daughter of a British mob boss. After coming to Ally’s convent, Roxy further strengthens her power and becomes one of the strongest warriors in the new world order.

There is also Margot, a high-climbing politician who uses her power for self-advancement and advocates for the training of young girls to become soldiers with powerful control over their abilities. Finally is Tunde, a male journalist who follows and reports on the gender revolutions across the world. Each character offers a unique perspective as an already problematic world erupts in chaos.

The unyielding power of the women in this world gives them a new strength over men, and they take this strength to the extremes. In addition to fighting off their oppressors, they also seek out more vulnerable populations, often acting out violently. In one particularly devastating scene, a group of women violently assault and rape a man.

Rather than playing into the assumption that a women-ruled world would inevitably be more peaceful, Alderman reminds readers that any world with a dominant gender can only result in disaster. Women fail to fix the oppressive structures that once formerly constrained them; instead, they turn these structures onto the men.

We see women apply a variety of techniques to advance themselves in this new world: Ally manipulates her followers into believing that she is someone she is not; Margot expands her political prowess; Roxy draws upon the strength of her own power as well as the status of her father; and Tatiana Moskalev, the former First Lady of Moldova, kills her husband and takes over his role as President.

All of these women, however, depend on the use of their power to successfully implement these techniques. In doing this, Alderman examines the question of what women have to do in order to be seen as equal (or superior) to men. Is physical dominance the only way for women to prove their worth?

Despite her relatively simple language, which in some ways seems more at home in a young adult novel, the ideas that Alderman brings to the table give her novel a much more mature tone, demonstrating the broad impact of The Power. By exploring and twisting popular feminist theories, Alderman forces us to reconsider the harmful influence that gender roles have on our society, proving herself to be the next generation’s Margaret Atwood.

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As a member of a fraternity, I recognize the severe problems that can occur with Greek Life and sexual assault at so many schools across this country. I can also tell you that it’s our responsibility as a Greek community to unequivocally say every single day, our members on this campus must strive to consistently uphold our values by keeping campus safe. I also want readers to understand that there are both men and women in Greek Life who are survivors of sexual assaults. This is why it is so reckless to simply paint all of Greek Life as perpetrators of these problems. It denigrates the survivors that we have all around us and de-legitimizes their stories, experiences, and perspectives. Yes, of course, there’s so much more we can do as a community to help support all survivors and preempt sexual violence wherever it manifests, which is why we attend annual Green Dot trainings and participate in Take Back the Night in partnership with the Women’s Center. It’s always incredible to see that so many members of our community involved in the Women’s Centers programming, both the sororities and fraternities. Satire is important in bringing light to a serious issue through humor, but when it ends up hurting survivors then it becomes misguided, unfunny, and even harmful. This being said, I really appreciate the work The Retriever does to report on the shortcomings of Title IX, by shining the light on this issues one day hopefully they can be rectified and improved.

Patrick Reid, Vice President for Recruitment for the Inter-Fraternity Council

On Wednesday, April 3, the three co-chairs of the Retriever Courage Student Advisory Committee, Aliya Webermann, Nadia BenAissa and Lorraine Dell’Acqua, along with Women’s Center Director Jess Myers, who all serve on the Retriever Courage Implementation Team, met with Retriever Editor-in-Chief Julia Arbutus and News Editor Johanna Alonso. The purpose was to discuss the “calendar of events” which advertised “free breast exams” by fraternity members, and an encouragement to “eat pussy, baby!” that ran in the Retriever’s annual April Fools’ Day issue, The Deceiver, and to provide feedback about the harms and impact of their piece.

Our conversation with Arbutus and Alonso was very productive. We were able to share our different perspectives on the impact of the piece while also acknowledging mutual interest in preventing sexual assault and supporting survivors. Indeed, one reason we were taken aback by this piece was because The Retriever has been at the forefront of crucial reporting this year as our university has had a very public reckoning with how we address sexual assault and the reporting and response process for survivors.

Arbutus and Alonso shared that their intention had been to satirize rape culture (that is, the normalization of sexual violence, more often experienced by women, people of color, folks with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community) and rapists. At the same time, as Lindy West has written, the difference between satirizing rapists and rape culture and making light of rape and creating hypothetical victims in a joke is often unclear. In response to an all-campus email sent out by the Retriever Courage Implementation Team on Monday, some students pointed to the fact that the “calendar of events” was satire not meant to be taken seriously, and while it was perhaps offensive or in poor taste, all is fair in love and humor.

Some people did find this “calendar of events” funny, and they may not have been upset by it. But, what was the cost to the people who did not find it funny? What about those who were reminded of trauma and violence they have experienced? At UMBC alone, approximately 20% of our student body (at a minimum) has survived sexual violence in their lifetime, which is around 1200 undergraduate students (not counting faculty, staff, and graduate students). What about those who remember or experienced a very real event from several years ago, similar to the “free breast exams” in the “calendar of events,” wherein some students planned an event which involved non-consensual groping and kissing? The “calendar of event” jokes normalizes groping and makes light of sexual trauma. When sexual assault and rape victims are the butt of a joke, the joke becomes unacceptable.

The costs of sexual violence on individuals, relationships, communities, and societies is profound, lifelong, and devastating. Healing is not linear, and hearing a rape joke or seeing rape and sexual assault minimized can be triggering and re-traumatizing to survivors. In addition, survivors too often witness those who perpetrate sexual violence behave with relative impunity given the low rates of survivor reporting and few cases which lead to arrests, prosecutions, and convictions, and as a society we have witnessed the many examples of #MeToo offenders who have returned to the spotlight with little to no repercussions.

Retriever Courage was framed around two terms coined by University of Oregon’s Jennifer Freyd: institutional betrayal and institutional courage. Institutional betrayal refers to the wrongdoings perpetrated by an institution upon individuals who depend upon it. In contrast, institutional courage thrives when an institution is transparent and accountable. It takes courage to speak out, to listen, to learn, and to take action. It is our collective responsibility do this work.

In the launch of Retriever Courage, the university community committed to “taking action on what we learn together, developing a productive dialogue, and creating a coordinated campus response to incidents of sex discrimination and sexual violence/misconduct—a response that is proactive, caring, and transparent.” Our conversation with Arbutus and Alonso allowed us to model the courage to say something when we see something. It is one step that moves us closer to making UMBC a safer, more caring, learning and working environment for all.

The Student Advisory Committee, Retriever Courage Team, and the Women’s Center will continue to work on improving how our university responds to sexual violence and supports survivors. We appreciate that The Retriever took the opportunity to apologize for the real pain that their piece has caused. In the spirit of The Retriever’s first edition from the fall that made a commitment to truth, community, and UMBC students, we join with The Retriever in these important efforts. We hope this can be an opportunity for us all to continue engaging in difficult dialogues with one another about the complicated work of dismantling rape culture.

Aliya Webermann Ph.D. ‘21

Lorraine Dell’Acqua ‘19

Nadia BenAissa ‘20

Jess Myers

on behalf of Retriever Courage

Correction: The print version of this op-ed published on April 10, 2019 refers to Johanna Alonso as the Student Life editor. She is the News editor.

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“There’s nothing to do around here on the weekends,” students will complain before they ditch their dorms and commute back to their homes after their Friday classes end. Despite the fact that Arbutus is quite literally a short walk away, students have not considered the community a favorite hangout spot. Arbutus’s aesthetic gears more towards blue collar working class with bars, liquor stores and consignment shops in contrast to the college town appeal of Towson.

Arbutus has several notable attractions such as the Arbutus Oak, the Guinness Open Gate Brewery, the Patapsco Valley State Park and the Hollywood Theatre. But convincing students to take the stroll to Arbutus has been in the works for over a decade. The relationship between Arbutus and UMBC has not always been amicable, with UMBC’s research park garnering significant controversy before its construction in 2013.

An article from the Catonsville Times ten years ago showed that students were interested in hookah bars, late-night coffee bars and organic markets, yet these do not currently exist in Arbutus. The students who are attempting to build the UMBC student-led cafe OCA (Office of Community Affairs) Mocha hope to change that.

The students who spearheaded the campaign have high hopes for the project. “We wanted to revitalize the interactions with UMBC and the communities around it,” explained one of the students involved in the project, media and communications studies major senior Michael Berardi. Biology and finanical economics major Deep Patel, another senior and student leader, said, “As we reached out to different community organizations, that’s when we started to get the idea of a coffee shop and a meeting space to get people really involved with each other.”

The project got started in an Entrepreneurship 340 class taught by Gib Mason, though Mason considers himself more of a facilitator. He commented that he “taught [the students] a creative problem-solving methodology, they applied it to a problem that was in front of them and went through all the steps to get to where they were at the end of that semester, which was OCA Mocha. Credit goes to them, without question.”

On Thursday, March 14, the cafe’s steering committee hosted a partnership gathering which celebrated its return to construction. The event featured several activities, including community feedback and a ceremonial signing.

OCA Mocha will be placed straight in the middle of Main Street Arbutus, surrounded by Objects Found, Sorrento’s and Taste Tea. The cafe’s road was a rocky one. After being formulated over the course of several semesters, the location that the student committee purchased was left vacant. According to Mason, this was because of funding: UMBC as a state-run college cannot fund a for-profit business, so the students had to get assistance from the Arbutus community in order to move their project forward. For now, OCA Mocha remains under construction.