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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4 — Tuesday, February 9, 2016

E-mail FranniE at FrmillEr@umich.Edu
FRANNIE MILLER

Stop romanticizing exhaustion

 Martin O’Malley 2020.

Yes, I just said that. The long-

shot presidential candidate just 
dropped out of the race after fin-
ishing third in Iowa, and his dis-
mal 2016 campaign is now behind 
him. He only secured 0.6 percent 
of the vote in Iowa and burned 
through his own money at an 
alarming rate, while barely mak-
ing a splash among voters.

However, I support Martin 

O’Malley. Any other year in a 
presidential race, he would have 
done quite well. Most of his ideas 
were progressive, yet fell short 
of socialism, and he has a proven 
track record of working with the 
other side of the isle. The only 
problem for him was that this is 
not a normal election year. With 
Trump 
stealing 
airtime 
from 

every candidate, and Sanders and 
Clinton fighting it out on the left, 
there simply wasn’t enough space 
for a third candidate for the Dem-
ocrats. It happened to be O’Malley 
who drew the short straw. 

Martin O’Malley is a quintessen-

tial Democrat. He embodies many 
progressive ideas, and has a set 
of 15 goals for the country that he 
would have implemented if he was 
elected this year. Some of them are 
things I hold near and dear to my 
heart. For example, O’Malley had a 
goal of having a 100-percent renew-
able electric grid by the year 2050. 
The environmental and economic 
impacts of that goal would be mon-

umental for our country and our 
world. He also wanted to cut the 
youth unemployment rate in half 
by bringing back job programs for 
young people. This would make 
college more affordable and would 
put money back in the American 
Infrastructure. This is a prag-
matic approach, proposing to put a 
real plan in place to accomplish a 
problem that everyone on the left 
has been yelling about for many 
years. Martin O’Malley is full of 
plans like this.

Additionally, O’Malley has the 

experience needed to run this coun-
try. He served seven years as the 
mayor of Baltimore, and during 
that time, he oversaw monumental 
change. For example, he lowered the 
number of homicides in Baltimore 
to less than 300 for the first time in 
more than 10 years. He also passed 
one of the first municipal laws ban-
ning transgender discrimination all 
the way back in 2002, something 
many municipalities still do not 
have. O’Malley cut crime and saved 
money, all while revitalizing the 
city of Baltimore. After that, he ran 
for governor of Maryland, where 
his progressive actions continued. 
He championed criminal justice 
reform, and passed the Dream Act 
in Maryland, which allowed more 
children to get a college education. 
He passed marriage equality, and 
included “Gender Identity” as a 
protected status at the state level. 
He even repealed the death penalty 

and passed gun safety laws, some-
thing many other candidates have 
not been so quick to support. Under 
O’Malley, wages have gone up, and 
graduation rates have, too.

O’Malley is also the frontman for 

an Irish rock band, and was rated 
as one of the most attractive men 
in politics. He’s also the only candi-
date on the radar right now who has 
any meaningful experience with 
urban areas, which are a key part 
of American culture. In fact, he has 
promised to bring back America’s 
cities and work with local leaders to 
revitalize and restore our neglected 
cities like never before. O’Malley 
isn’t just a good leader, he’s the lead-
er we need. Nobody else will work 
together with everybody in Wash-
ington to accomplish real progres-
sive change with people in mind.

I support Martin O’Malley — 

because he can bring our country 
together to accomplish progressive 
reforms in a way neither Clinton 
nor Sanders can. I strongly urge 
him to run again in 2020, and to 
hold strong as a Democrat and 
reformer. 2016 may not have been 
the year of O’Malley, but I firmly 
believe there will be one soon. So I 
say it again:

O’Malley 2020.

Kevin Sweitzer is the president 

of “Michigan for O’Malley,” a club 

that supports O’Malley. He can be 

reached at ksweitz@umich.edu.

Martin O’Malley 2020

L

ast night, I had two committee meet-
ings, got done at 10 and then still had to 
write my English paper!”

“Well, I stayed up until 

5 a.m. studying for my 
biology exam … ”

As I sat in Starbucks on 

a dreary Saturday after-
noon, trying to fight my exhaustion and the 
darkening half moons under my eyes with a 
steady flow of caffeine, these were just a few 
of the phrases I heard exclaimed by the weary 
students around me. While listening, I noticed 
a somewhat startling occurrence. It seemed like 
everyone was trying to one-up each other over 
the matter of how much sleep they neglected 
for studying, or how much they could push their 
bodies to the limit of complete debilitation.

In the past 10 years or so, with a rise in com-

petitive college applicants (and subsequent-
ly, students) across the nation, it seems that 
being productive to the point of deteriorating 
performance is the new vogue. A 2011 study 
by the American Psychological Association 
showed that students today are more anxious, 
depressed and have poorer sleep patterns than 
at any other time in this nation’s history. Psy-
chologist Gregg Henriques attributes this trend 
to the economic and financial pressures of the 
unstable job market and the obsession with 
testing and grades in schools.

We need to constantly be on the go, not stop-

ping to make time for anything deemed “not 
productive” — or else it seems we are worth-
less. Those rare humans who seem to never 
have time even to breathe, who are slender from 
a diet of meetings instead of meals, are held on 
pedestals because we simultaneously glorify 
slogans such as “no days off” and “the only bad 
workout is a missed workout.”

This semester, I purposefully scaled back 

on the strenuousness of my classes in order to 
have more time for both running and exploring 
extracurriculars. Though it was the right deci-
sion for me, it left me with feelings of uncer-
tainty that I wasn’t working up to my potential. 
Throughout high school, I would often leave 
my house at 7 a.m. and not return until late at 
night. By the spring of my senior year, I was 
completely burnt out. I wasn’t sleeping, racing 
poorly and had little to no interest in academ-
ics. I couldn’t maintain my façade of inhuman 
productivity forever.

Last night, I got eight hours of sleep due to 

the fact that I have a manageable workload 
and have finally figured out how to prioritize 
my time. Yet, I was left feeling strangely guilty 
about my decision to choose what worked best 
for me, and ultimately, the fact that I was not 
living up to society’s expectations of what a 
truly “good” student does during the night 
(spending it in the library). As I’m sleeping, I 
thought, other people are out there working 
hard to expand their knowledge and fulfill their 
hopes and dreams — while I lie here like a rock 
in my bed.

Instead of paying tribute to the things that 

matter such as balance, self-care and emotional 
well-being, it seems that our society has turned 
toward romanticizing exhaustion and anxiety. 
Coffee is not seen as a delicious beverage, but as 
a way of pumping caffeine into one’s body after 
too many hours studying into the late hours 
of the night. Of course, every so often, a very 

late night due to hours of work is inevitable — 
and part of the college experience. I am by no 
means declaring that students need to simply 
stop studying so they can suddenly morph into 
perfectly rested human beings.

However, we can only run on fumes for so 

long. Our body does not function on lack of 
sleep. Numerous studies have shown that over 
time, low sleep levels contribute to higher rates 
of anxiety, depression, poor academic perfor-
mance and even obesity.

In life, it is impossible to constantly be 

going — we are humans, not energizer bun-
nies. Thus, pushing, pushing, pushing will 
inevitably lead us over the brink of a total 
breakdown. In competitive running, for 
example, if you never scale back, you will 
eventually wear your body down and expe-
rience massive declines in performance. 
Though it is tempting to go out and pound the 
pavement for miles and miles every single day, 
desperately chasing a dream, it’s important to 
listen to your body. Doing too much with no 
recovery time is the reason a plethora of stress 
fractures and other injuries leave heartbroken 
runners pedaling sadly on the stationary bike 
for large portions of their season.

Runners and, to a greater extent, all athletes, 

are encouraged to take care of their bodies and 
choose sleep over “cram sessions” and adequate 
nutrition over missed meals. We know our bod-
ies will simply not perform at high levels if we 
fail to refuel the energy we are taking out of it.

However, why isn’t this message of proper 

refueling and balance being shared with all 
students? Though we all use our bodies in 
different ways, everyone has the same basic 
human needs. At our very core, food, rest and 
hydration keep us going — but a good laugh 
with friends, a day of simply doing nothing but 
watching Netflix and drinking hot chocolate 
or a nice walk in the sun never fails to boost 
my overall mindset. A strong GPA and work 
ethic will take you far in life, but someone who 
does not ever stop and cut back every once in a 
while will inevitably burnout.

This belief in never taking a day off — even 

amid injury or sickness, or days when you 
simply feel like you have the entire world on 
your shoulders — is twisted. That mindset is 
how I ended up with two stress reactions in 
my legs and mental burnout. The belief in “no 
days off” that is supposed to promote success 
and productivity, ironically halted my prog-
ress in its tracks.

Though totally transforming a recent social 

phenomenon is unrealistic, it’s important to 
know how to take care of yourself when you’re 
feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. Instead 
of frantically pressing on amid overwhelming 
feelings of helplessness, take some time to slow 
down and address the source of your stress. It is 
not embarrassing to go to bed before midnight if 
you’re completely exhausted. You are not a fail-
ure if you have to miss a club meeting because 
you’ve shed tears over whether you’ll complete 
a paper in time for the due date. The bags under 
your eyes are not meant to be shown off like a 
shiny new purchase, but rather an indicator 
that you need to let yourself recover. Your body, 
and your mind, will definitely thank you.

Kaela Theut can be reached 

at ktheut@umich.edu.

L

ast week, Daryush Valiza-
deh, the Return of Kings 
founder — known to his fol-

lowers as Roosh 
V — announced 
165 group meet-
ups, 
includ-

ing one in Ann 
Arbor. 
Valiza-

deh 
advocates 

on 
his 
web-

site, Return of 
Kings, for the 
legalization 
of 

rape in private 
spaces, and pro-
motes the view 
that women are 
solely valuable for their looks and 
ability to reproduce. Valizadeh 
has also published several how-
to books on picking up women. 
The titles include: “Bang Lithu-
ania,” “Day Bang,” “Bang Iceland,” 
“Poosy Paradise” and “30 Bangs: 
The Shaping of One Man’s Game 
From Patient Mouse to Rabid 
Wolf.”

According to Valizadeh, he 

planned the meet-ups to provide 
his purportedly large numbers 
of followers the opportunity to 
“come out of the shadows and not 
have to hide behind a computer 
screen for fear of retaliation,” 
and “signal to all that we’re not 
going anywhere.” The meetings 
were ultimately cancelled, pur-
portedly due to Valizadeh’s con-
cerns that he could “no longer 
guarantee the safety or privacy 
of the men who want to attend.”

Once I got past the irony that a 

bunch of rapey, self-proclaimed 
pickup artists cancelled their 
Saturday night plans out of fear, 
the whole story began to suspi-
ciously resemble a really awe-
somely 
organized, 
strategic 

publicity stunt.

Through 
announcing 
the 

meet-ups, Valizadeh got hun-
dreds of news outlets in multiple 
countries to publicize his web-
site, simply by doing their jobs 
and covering the story. The pub-
licity was free, wide-reaching 
and effective. The website expe-
rienced such high web traffic 
that it briefly crashed.

Manipulating the media to 

attract attention — and conse-
quently paying customers — is 
not a new marketing strategy. 
American entertainment entre-
preneurs have been engineering 
“bad” publicity to ignite con-
troversies and drive sales since 
at least the mid-1800s. Donald 
Trump’s presidential campaign 
does it today; his skill in attract-
ing free publicity by spewing the 
outlandish explains how he has 
pervaded public consciousness 
despite spending more than 99 
percent less on advertising than 
other leading candidates.

Return of Kings has certainly 

benefitted 
from 
controversy-

driven publicity before.

The first time I heard of the 

site was when it published “5 
Reasons to Date a Girl With An 
Eating Disorder” back in Novem-
ber 2013. Several friends had 
posted it on social media, derid-
ing its foul message about a dis-
order that impacts an estimated 
8 million Americans. Perhaps 
unsurprisingly, I never heard 
someone defend the article.

Even still, the article drove 

new readers to the site.

Many probably didn’t like what 

they found there; if they actually 
did, the website may have even 
attracted new, regular readers. 
But the benefit of the newfound 
public attention was certainly 
for Valizadeh and his website — 
not the ideology or “movement” 
he 
represented. 
Web 
traffic 

largely determines online adver-
tising revenue. Additionally, his 
expanding public presence may 
have helped him sell copies of 
his books.

The 
announced 
“meet-ups” 

had a similar effect — though 
on a much larger scale. Accord-
ing to a Google Trends analysis 
of search terms trends between 
January 2016 and February 2016, 
the number of people search-
ing for “return of kings” and 
“roosh v” relative to the total 
number of Google searches has 
increased by 4,900 percent and 
962.5 percent, respectively. By 
the same metrics and during the 
same period, the popularity of 
the search terms “mens rights” 

and “pro-rape” have doubled and 
tripled, respectively.

In hindsight, the announced 

meet-ups seem destined to fail. 
Just 
as 
Valizadeh’s 
devotees 

have the right to meet up and 
promulgate 
their 
vile 
views 

about women, anyone else has 
the right to show up and protest. 
That’s exactly what many people 
planned to do.

And while Return of Kings has 

every right to propagate sexist, 
vulgar nonsense tailored to meet 
the demands of angry white guys 
who can’t get laid, anyone can 
respond by sharing countervail-
ing views.

Both actions merely play into 

Valizadeh’s publicity ploy, help-
ing him and his site reach more 
people 
than 
they 
otherwise 

would’ve.

The 
media 
firestorm 
sur-

rounding the planned meet-ups 
may be an intended outcome of 
Valizadeh’s attention-grab. It’s 
possible that he’s little more than 
a shrewd businessman who’s 
found a way to profit off a bunch 
of insecure women-haters.

But his followers are real, even 

if the meet-ups never were. The 
misogynistic views he promotes 
really do pervade some segments 
of society.

At the extreme, the idea that 

women are somehow morally 
culpable for any dude’s unful-
filled sexual desires result in 
events like the 2014 Santa Bar-
bara shooting, where a college 
student killed six people to prove 
his superiority over the women 
who’d rejected him.

Ideas that rape is ever per-

missible or that a woman’s value 
comes primarily from her beauty 
and fertility — ideas capitalized 
on, but certainly not pioneered by, 
Valizadeh — permeate everyday 
life. Given that one in five college 
women report having been sexu-
ally assaulted and that women still 
face unequal opportunities for 
advancement at work, misogynis-
tic ideologies certainly don’t need 
more advocates.

Tori Noble can be reached 

at vjnoble@umich.edu.

Clickbait misogyny

TORI 
NOBLE

KAELA 
THEUT

KEVIN SWEITZER | OP-ED 

 
 

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