Features

Lily Bromley

Staff Writer

Axe body spray; a scent that seems to have followed me from middle school to my sophomore year of high school and if you have ever seen an Axe commercial, it is easy to see why. Axe is advertised as a chick magnet, a magical tool that can make even the biggest loser irresistible to women. And for some reason, these commercials actually seem to work. They present the idea that women want hyper-masculine men and then bring out the product that can single-handedly turn anyone into a walking Foreman grill.

 

So the real question is, do girls even like Axe?

 

The short answer is mostly no. I mean, I don’t. After having someone mistakenly spray it into my face in middle school, I haven’t really cared for it. The thing is, I don’t mind men’s cologne in general, but I think that something about Axe encourages boys to drench themselves in it.

 

“It’s kind of like how girls wear perfume or makeup as a way to express themselves, it’s just a way to make yourself feel more jazzed up,” Says Sophomore Zoe Kwasnicki. “I think it is cool that guys want to express themselves, but it can be too much.”

 

There aren’t many self-care products on the market specifically for men, and the ones that there are (like Axe) seem to hyper-masculinize themselves as a way to counter the idea that taking care of yourself, or caring what you look (or smell) like is a feminine thing to do. Axe is a company that obviously profits off of toxic masculinity and the insecurities of young men, and they have been called out for it many times. In 2017, Axe launched a campaign focusing on toxic masculinity and how it affects young men. While I totally agree with this campaign, I still think that Axe benefits from the messages of their earlier ads.

 

Take their scent “Dark Temptation”. The scent claims to be “chocolate scented”, and that it will attract women because women love chocolate. Or “Vice” which claims that it turns “good girls bad”. Axe’s commercials go from exaggerated, to outright crazy. One commercial claims that Axe is “Anti-Invisible Spray” for men who are ignored by women, while another shows a high school teacher coming onto her student once he uses Axe.

 

Axe has completely stopped airing commercials, so unless someone has a habit of checking their website, they would have no idea about this anti toxic masculinity campaign. In this way, Axe has a backing if someone claims that the brand is sexist or profits off of men’s insecurities, without actually changing the kind of messages people associate them with.      

 

“I think that is it sad that fragile masculinity makes men feel like they have to be obnoxious and overpowering- like Axe,” Says Sophomore Kofi Kohl.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

From a young age, men are told to be assertive, powerful, and strong. They are told to speak loudly and to not allow themselves to be ignored. Axe body spray seems to be a way that young boys make themselves more noticeable, even the commercial advertises itself as “Anti-Invisible Spray”.

 

Sophomore Mo Kelly remarks, “I think that boys think that Axe makes them strong. Even the name Axe is like strong, and they think that if they wear something like Axe they will be cool and strong too.”

 

Over the past few weeks, I have been asking all my close friends what they think about Axe, just to see what the general population of SLA had to say about it, and they all had the same answer, they didn’t like it. So how can we explain the constant lingering smell of Axe that fills SLA every day? The truth is that only 3 or 4 people need to wear it for the smell to make its way around the school.

 

So the next time you go to spray yourself with “Dark Temptation” or “TWIƧT” (yes, it’s really spelled like that), remember the connotations that come with wearing Axe, and also remember that no one else really likes it.

 

Juliana Long

Staff Writer

 

It’s the spring semester — which means it’s already time to start thinking about next year’s classes.

Course selection can be tricky and worrisome for students, even with how easy it is to complete at SLA. For SLA Junior, Mia Concepcion, the importance of senior year course choice is based on colleges’ perception of how rigorous a student’s transcript will appear.

“I’m heavily influenced by needing to fulfill my credits in order to graduate and also wanting to look good for colleges, like taking extra classes that I don’t need so I make a good impression on them,”
Similarly, fellow junior Krystal Cabrera is also influenced by future perceptions of her course choice.  “Especially now in junior year it’s important for me to pick courses that will eventually help me in the future,” says Cabrera. “Course selection this year felt more important to me since it’s the last classes I’ll be taking in high school.”

As if choosing courses that will reflect on your academic year positively isn’t stressful enough, the Philadelphia School District shook things up for both students and teachers this year by implementing a new course selection system. It was designed to be completed through InfiniteCampus for all Philadelphia School District schools as opposed to the google form traditionally used at  SLA.

Math Teacher and Roster Chair Sunil Reddy, who designed the original system, shared his experience with learning and teaching the new system to SLA advisors.

“I was really worried that it was going to be hard for the students to understand even if I were presenting it to them,” he admitted.

Whereas the Google Form process designed by Mr. Reddy was straightforward and the course names matched the descriptions in a logical way, the new Infinite Campus system used the same course names for every PSD school, making it difficult to identify which class was which.

The situation was made worse by the condensed timeline.

“The School District kind of presented it to the roster chairs really quickly and said, ‘The system is going to open for the students in two weeks and it will lock two weeks after that,’” Reddy explained. “So I had to put together a lot of materials the quickest I could to show the advisors so that they could do their best.”

Junior advisor Daniel Symonds had a similar, if not more opinionated, take on the School District’s decision to implement a more complicated system.

“I find it to be a rather tedious exercise that reminds me of the difference between educators, who want students to learn meaningful things, and the School District, who doesn’t understand how paperwork demoralizes kids,” he says.

About his experience walking his advisees through the course selection process this year, he says that “Everyone was crying.”

“Metaphorically crying,” he adds as an afterthought.

It’s become clear that the majority of SLA community members aren’t thrilled about the new InfiniteCampus course selection system. Things are crazy enough here as it is, and routine changes are less than ideal.

As a community, we can only have faith that we will become used to and master the new system. Because if there’s one thing SLA is good at, it’s adapting to change.

Jayla Wright

Copy Editor 

Walk down the hallways of SLA and you’ll see little white devices nestled in students’ ears. Peak into a classroom and you may see sets of kids huddled together, sharing pairs of the wireless gadget. Look even closer, and you’d find more in other kids’ ears only obscured by intentionally obstructing hair and hats. These gadgets  are called AirPods, and they’re taking over SLA.

After the holiday season, gifted AirPods filled SLA. Underclassmen were affected most by this trend. Some wearing them openly, others in secret.

Memes on Instagram also appeared around the same time and portrayed AirPods users as rich, arrogant, and snobby. As these memes gained popularity, so did the stereotypes they created.

Despite this, freshmen Eamonn Carey openly wears his AirPods with pride. Ask him about his AirPods and he’d probably reply in a tune similar to the Instagram memes. However, despite his behavior, Carey does not follow the stereotypes at all. In fact, he doesn’t have a single sense of superiority. He simply finds the stereotype funny.

The memes also make Carey, as he put it, seen as “Kinda like an a**hole, but that’s okay.” The negative reputation of AirPods users causes two responses from the people who are mocked. Either laugh it off like Carey or modestly wearing the earbuds like Freshman Sophia Florence.

Florence prefers to hide her AirPods behind her long hair or refrain from wearing them in the hallways.

“I’m not the one to wear the AirPods to show people that I have them. I’m not like that.” says Florence.

Florence doesn’t flaunt her AirPods to avoid making those without them upset. She considers that people who can’t afford the devices might feel bad if she shows off what she has.

The Instagram memes have created negative connotations with AirPods. Has anything good come from this product?

Blue stream would have to say yes.

“In our stream, if you have AirPods and the other person doesn’t, we share.” States Florence.

Senior Eric Valenti SATs Mr. Kay’s freshmen class and believes AirPods, “worked as something that brings the freshmen closer in an odd way. It gave them something to joke about. I feel like when people meet each other the easy thing to do is always bring up a joke or something funny so I guess them having AirPods in is a conversation starter.”

“Our generation, now, we’re more connected to media. Simple social interactions are difficult. So I think that it’s positive in the way that it helps kids that are on the media more talk to each other.”

AirPods being wireless allows her to listen with classmates across the room. And to even become closer to her stream.

Despite what you have been lead to believe, AirPods can create good-natured interactions.

 

Eric Valenti

A&E Editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the new SLAmbassadors being chosen and their trips only a few months away, they may have a massive amount of questions and fears about traveling to a new country. With the help of a few SLAmbassadors, this article will hopefully act as a guide for these students embarking on their new European journey.

Feeling Safe

Traveling to a new country is definitely something both amazing and scary. However, traveling with ten other students and two adults is also this gateway of becoming an adult. For the trip, you’re mostly on your own and at times you need to be able to make decisions of whether or not you want to try something new. You are also put into this situation where it’s up to you to start the conversation and meet new people in a foreign environment. Wright explained an experience while in Germany where she made a decision that ended up getting her lost and she wished she knew her German better and could’ve asked her advice before she made a decision.

“One time I wandered off at night and the Germans explained that was kinda dangerous and not to do that. If you feel unsafe you should always keep in contact with your host and just make sure you always tell them where you are.”

This advice is similar to what most people are told here in America but it’s good to recall it. Senior Taylor Green went on the Poland trip in the previous year. Green wanted to tell anyone who is a minority to be ready for some ignorance on the Poland trip.

“If you’re a person of color just prepared to not be in a not as diverse community like SLA. But don’t be afraid to try new things, new foods and always be friendly.”

Being alone in either of these countries can be scary. But don’t worry because you have about ten other students with you and two chaperones that you can contact if you feel unsafe. You also have your host, who is true of the expert of your European country.

Hosting vs Being Hosted

One of the most intimate parts of the SLAmbassadors trip is living with one another. When you travel to your designated European country you’ll have to live with your host or someone else if your host is unable to. Some hosts parents may not speak English, and you’ll be in that awkward space where your host has to translate everything you say. You’ll also have to shower, sleep and eat with your temporary family. The best advice people gave was to get to know your host. Senior Jayla Wright explained that you should try talking about some more meaningful stuff with your host.

“You should try to open up to your person so you guys can have some sort of connection or find something in common so that you can have at least one thing you guys can talk about. If you can’t have anything to talk about then it’s gonna really suck because your gonna spend a lot of time together alone.” Wright stated.

Opening up is a great way to expose yourself to your host and get rid of the uncomfortable awkwardness that will come. But be careful and don’t overshare, Junior Sam Gulaterrii, who traveled to Germany in the past year, made the mistake of telling his life story.

“As soon as I got to his house, I realized that we were both similar people and we kinda hit it off really quick. We just talked in his room for like three hours about everything that we enjoyed, because we had seventeen years of life to talk about and we ran through all of it and then we had nothing to talk about.”

Make sure you find a balance. The two of you will be around each other a lot and if you don’t find a balance you may find yourself unable to get along with each other. You should not feel pressured to be their new best friend but make sure you make them feel comfortable when they come and live with you too. Junior Nasya Ie traveled to Poland in the previous year and believed she was able to find this balance of talking to one another.

“Communication is key. One of the other hosts didn’t communicate very well and I think that’s super important. Just make sure you talk in general, before and when you do meet them. Send photos of you and your family so that you have a strong foundation before the meeting.”

If you have a bad relationship with your host and just want to be acquaintances with them, that’s alright. It’s not as much as your host but the country itself that you should really prepare for.

Expectations

Wherever you may travel you may feel like you don’t know where you’re going. You’ve never been to Germany or Poland and you probably don’t know much about your trip. Senior William Huang traveled to Germany in the past year and gave some basics on what you should do before leaving.

“Do some research on activities or things you want to do because there will be free time and you’ll be in a situation where they ask you what you want to do. And you want the most out of the experience.”

Making sure that you pick out a few places that you want to visit is extremely important, especially in this case. There are about three days where the host has to show you around and most people have stated that their hosts really didn’t have much planned. It may be due to how alike their country is to Philadelphia. The only difference is that people are able to tell that you don’t belong there. Ie was surprised to see what Poland was like.

“They were modern than I expected and it reminded me of Philly. The people were really nice of course some of them were mean. Some of them would just stare at you. They didn’t want to give us change for larger bills and didn’t like to have to speak English.” Ie stated.

Suitcase

Almost everyone packs the nights before and when they pack you may feel overwhelmed. You may come to realize that you don’t know what to pack. It’s because of all the things you have to consider, an example is the gift you should bring for your host.

“You should get them plenty of American foods they can’t get and make something personal for them and get gifts for their whole family. My host gave me a journal that she made herself. So I did the same for her.” Wright stated.

For daily clothing, if you’re going on the Germany trip, interestingly enough the SLAmbassadors to wear shorts and short sleeve shirts. If you’re going on the Poland trip, you’ll probably have to do Model United Nations. Model UN also is known as Tomun in Poland, is an event in Poland where all the students represent different countries and have to discuss different political issues. Ie highly recommended that you wear some fancier clothing.

“Nicer clothes. They all wore dresses and suits during Model UN, they all just looked spot on. Make sure you have a heavy and light jacket. You should pack all the necessary products because sometimes it’s annoying having to run around for basic stuff.” Ie stated.

Regrets and Places to Be

It’s your last day of exploration of either Germany or Poland. You’ve packed up all your things. All the events and exciting things that happened on this trip have become memories. All the things you’ve seen have only become pictures. Once you return home all you’ll be thinking about it is: I wish I did more. Green excitedly told how she wished she had more of a chance to just have fun.

“Something I wish I did more of is…. I want to say party but I don’t wanna say party. For the Poland trip a lot of it was Model United Nations which was cool but when you go to a Foreign Country you don’t wanna do work or talk about world issues. You just wanna have fun and sightsee.” Green explained.

Spending time with your host can be really fun and exploring the city can be enlightening but sometimes just being able to dance around with your host can be really cool too. It’s also fun to do things you can do in America but in Europe.

“They have so many escape rooms and make sure to get Pierogies and tomato soup. Also their riverside it looks nice for pictures. They also have a gate where you can get put a combination lock on a gate as people do in France.” Ie told happily.

Trying new food is essential when traveling to a new country. Traveling to a new country is also a great chance to learn a new language and expand your understanding of the culture your about to learn about. Green continued to tell that she wishes she had a chance to learn the language.

“I guess I regret not learning the language as much as I should have. I was able to say ‘hi’ and “bye” to people but I wish I could have more of a conversation because the language barrier was definitely there.”

The SLAmbassadors trip can be really scary. It’s your chance to create a relationship with someone over 100,000 miles away. But make sure before you go to remember to be safe and have fun.

Taylor Green

A&E Editor 

What’s better than food for a dollar within walking distance? Literally nothing. That’s the beauty of the newly popular Ritual app. It has taken many big cities by storm in the past month, Philadelphia being one of them.

 

Ritual is a food app created by Canadian businessman Ray Reddy that eliminates the hassle of ordering food online. It gets rid of paying for delivery and any other inconveniences that one might face while waiting for their food to arrive to them. Some would say that it’s more convenient than apps like UberEats.

 

Ritual has been seen in quaint food places not only around the city, but in the vicinity of SLA. These places tend to be within a five or six minute walk, such as Fuji Mountain Sushi, Dolce Carini Pizza and the infamous Golden Lake.

 

The main appeal of the app is the Dollar Fest, a promotion that the app does every Wednesday that allows you to order certain meals from restaurants that are only one dollar. For example, you can get a poke bowl from The PokeSpot and even pretzel bites from the Philly Pretzel factory all for one dollar.

 

Another reason that Ritual became such a craze is because when you refer a friend, they get $10 of order credit when they first sign up. They don’t even need to use a credit card to buy something. You can even get $5 off on your first order at a new restaurant. This has made people speculate the reliability of the Ritual app, but so far no one has had any complaints.

 

Unlike other food apps, Ritual has a reward system that will keep you coming back. For every time you order, you earn points. When you get to 10,000 XP points, you earn $10 credit towards your next order. This is a good way to ensure that they’ll keep the consumers coming.

 

Senior Imani Murray, an avid Ritual user, raves about the App. “I’ve shared my code with so many people throughout the school. I’ve earned a lot of credits that I’ll be sure to use later.” Murray shares.

 

The app has served as a big convenience for many students among the SLA community. Many students have already downloaded the app, and have even shared their referral code. On Wednesdays when there are early dismissals, you can find most of the students on city streets looking for a new food spot to try or trying to convince a friend to use the app so that they can get $10 credit.

 

Senior Dayanna Hughes also shares about how the app has come in handy. “Sometimes, I don’t feel like spending a lot of money going out to eat. Ritual has let me save by allowing me to use credits or even try new food places for free.” Hughes says.

 

Ritual has become a big part of the SLA community, and if it continues with this amount of success it will only get bigger. This innovative app is sure to become a new Ritual among SLA students.