I 

was not super excited when 
I heard that Marvel was 
making a new Spider-Man 

movie. For a 
little while, I 
was 
holding 

out hope that 
Donald Glover 
would be cast as the titular role, 
but when I found out that Tom 
Holland, a pretty average looking 
white boy (no offense) had been 
cast, I mostly lost interest. 
Recently I got in an argument 
with my uncle, who is totally in 
favor of casting Tom Holland, 
about the relevance of a new 
Spider-Man movie.

For my uncle, this new reboot 

meant a chance to finally get 
the Spider-Man of his childhood 
right. For my uncle, Spider-Man 
held quite a bit of significance 
— as he grew up in real life, 
so did Spidey in the comics he 
was reading. All of the teenage 
drama 
that 
my 
uncle 
went 

through, Spider-Man also went 
through, and he was able to 
share in Spidey’s ups and downs. 
In this way, it was almost as if 
my uncle had a companion who 
he grew up with, someone who 
could reflect the struggles he, 
as a teenage boy with a single 
mom, underwent. I’m sure that it 
means a lot to my uncle that his 
childhood companion is finally 
getting a movie where he wasn’t 
cast as a handsome adult man 
but as an awkward and scrawny, 
and therefore more relatable, 
teenager.

I 
was 
touched 
by 
my 

uncle’s 
explanation, 
but 
to 

me, this movie still remained 
unnecessary. I couldn’t shake the 
spiteful feeling that white, cis, 
heterosexual men already had 
enough movies that explained, 
organized and made relevant 

their experiences. To be honest, 
I was a little jealous. While the 
stories of white women are just 
beginning to be told, and the 
stories of persons of color, trans 
people and people who identify 
as LGBTQ are still considered 
refreshing, Hollywood decided 
to make another movie about a 
straight white boy going through 
puberty. It doesn’t make me 
upset that they made another 
Spider-Man movie, it makes me 
upset that they made a third 
reboot of the life and times of 
Peter Parker while the stories of 
Kamala Khan, Natasha Romanoff 
and many others are still waiting 
for their Hollywood treatment.

But why is this important? I 

mean, why does it really matter 
whether or not we see the same 
stories over and over again, or 
if we get to see some diversity 
in major movie productions? 
In 
her 
documentary 
Miss 

Representation, Jennifer Siebel 
Newsom states, “You can’t be 
what you can’t see,” and I think 
that this quote does a good job 
of explaining why diversity is 
important in film. For example, in 
my mind it was understood that if 
a man was yelling at a woman, the 
woman always just had to wait 
until it was over — she couldn’t 
fight back or tell him to calm 
down — until I watched “Thelma 
and Louise.” I didn’t grow up in 
a household where there were a 
lot of men yelling at women, so I 
must have learned this standard 
from the macho-man movies that 
my family used to watch. But 
then, one family movie night, we 
watched “Thelma and Louise” 
and one scene in particular stuck 
with me. In this scene, Thelma 
is confronted by her boyfriend 
Jimmy, who demands to know 
why he was asked to wire her 

money (SPOILER ALERT: it’s 
because Louise and Thelma are 
on the run for murdering a guy). 
She says that she won’t tell him, 
and he throws the typical film 
alpha male fit — throwing stuff 
around the room and swearing. 
Louise responds by saying, “You 
start this shit, I’m out of here,” 
and heads toward the door. It 
was an important and defining 
moment in my childhood because 
it taught me that, as a woman, 
I could stand up for myself in 
the face of angry men. But it 
happened when I was about 
13 — I didn’t grow up believing 
that I could show my strength 
in the face of men. All the other 
female-led movies I had watched 
up until that point had been 
pseudo-feminist 
romances 
or 

princess movies. Young people of 
all identities should be able to see 
themselves reflected on screen 
in roles that are empowering and 
authoritative.

Just to be clear: I’m definitely 

not opposed to the new Spider-
Man 
movie. 
Honestly, 
I’m 

probably going to go see and 
will most likely enjoy it (I’m 
a sucker for both teen movies 
and superhero movies). And 
I’m really glad that a movie 
is finally getting the Spider-
Man universe right, according 
to my uncle. But after this 
movie has been made, I hope 
that Hollywood starts making 
more movies that validate the 
experience of non-cis, -white, 
-straight, -heterosexual men. 
I hope that we start viewing 
franchises 
as 
a 
chance 
to 

increase diversity. Mostly, I 
just hope that we start seeing 
stories from new points of view. 
 

—Elena Hubbell can be reached 

at elepearl@umich.edu.

5
OPINION

Thursday, July 21, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Inspiring movies for all

“goals” rolled off my teacher’s 
tongue, I knew what my goal 
was: to look out for and care 
for others. Afterward, when 
we shared our goals amongst 
some of our peers, I read my 
goal aloud to a trusted friend. 
Immediately, 
she 
made 
a 

face, telling me my goal was 
supposed to be about myself. 
And in retrospect, she was 
right. While wanting to help 
people is always important, you 
should save an important place 
in your life for yourself.

As a young kid who was 

taught that I should always 
look out for the needs of others, 
anything 
that 
seemed 
even 

remotely about helping oneself 
above others I looked down 
on. Self-care wasn’t something 
I really ever thought about. I 
strove for this perfect person 
who did everything for others, 
disregarding how it may affect 
me, and I know now, that won’t 
serve anyone in the long run. 

Self-care is not synonymous 

with being selfish. It doesn’t 

mean that you are a slacker, 
you don’t care for others or 
want everything to revolve 
around you. It means that while 
you work your hardest to help 
others, 
you 
also 
remember 

that your health and wellbeing 
matter. It doesn’t need to be one 
or the other — helping others or 
focusing on yourself.

Take time to practice self-

care. It’s important.

Anna Polumbo-Levy can be 

reached at annapl@umich.edu.

ANNA
POLUMBO-
LEVY

Prioritizing self-care
A 

few days ago, a close 
friend from school came 
to visit me, and I wanted 

to 
show 

her 
where 

I 
worked. 

Walking 
toward 
the 

office, I got 
tense. I started to feel self-
conscious, like if I went into 
work and my coworkers and 
supervisors saw me there with 
my friend, they would question 
why I took time off. And as these 
thoughts swam around in my 
head, I began to feel nervous, 
bad, guilty — even anxious. 
I should be there helping or 
doing something else important 
if I’m not at the office. As we 
approached the door to my office, 
I almost wanted to scream out: 
“Stop! Let’s not bother them, 
why don’t I show you campus 
instead?”

As I walked into the office, I 

wasn’t greeted with glares and 
judgmental stares (completely a 
product of my own imagination) 
but 
instead 
smiles, 
and 
I 

remembered the workshop we’d 
had at work a few weeks back. 
The lawyers had arranged for 
a psychologist to come into the 
office to answer our questions 
and advise us on how to speak 
with traumatized clients. Part 
way through the workshop, after 
giving us tips about the best ways 
to communicate with clients, she 
switched the conversation to us.

How do we keep from getting 

burnt out? How do we separate 
work from our lives at home? 
Almost immediately, one lawyer 
said, “You can’t help anyone else 
before you help yourself.”And 
while a younger version of myself 
wouldn’t have understood, and 
maybe even thought it seemed 
selfish, it was a relief to hear this. 
As I think about it now, I realize 
how important this idea was to 
hold on to.

After a long day at work, 

you’re tired and feel spent. When 
someone asks you for a favor, 
though, your first reaction is 
to jump to help. But it’s alright, 
even necessary, to take a moment 
and decide: Can I do this now? 
It is OK to take a break, to ask 
for a break, to need a break. We 
need to practice self-care above 
all else, because if we don’t, how 
much help will we be to others? 
This has taken me a long time to 

realize, and I still need to remind 
myself of this every day when I’m 
hard on myself for not working 
that extra hour or for taking that 
extra day or not volunteering to 
help someone because I had to 
be somewhere else. And not only 
will we better help others, but we 
need to realize that our health, 
simply because it’s our health, is 
important.

Before I go further, I want to 

acknowledge that for many it is 
not so simple to just “take a break” 
because they need to work, or 
those they care for have no one 
else. And while I do write from 
a place of privilege, being able 
to set strong limits in my place 
of work and have other support 
systems, I believe there are ways 
for anyone to practice self-care, 
big and small. Even if it is taking 
a five-minute walk, having an 
extra cookie or breathing deeply 
for a minute, it is well worth it 
and too important to ignore.

We are taught to be selfless, 

give without expecting anything 
in return; otherwise, we are 
often told we are selfish. And 
there is no question that those 
who give their lives to help others 
should 
receive 
high 
praises 

for their work. But while it is 
very important we realize our 
privileges and that we have a duty 
to help those in need in the ways 
we can, it is also equally crucial 
to remember how important your 
own health and wellbeing are. 
In fact, it may even give you the 
strength and the ability to help 
others even more than you might 
have if you didn’t practice self-
care. We must include self-care 
as an important aspect of our 
lives. 

The first (and only time) I 

listened to the safety video on an 
airplane, I thought it was weird 
they told you to put your oxygen 
mask on before helping others. I 
said to myself that I’d be selfless 
and brave and help someone 
before myself. Of course you 
should help your child or sister 
or friend before yourself. In fact, 
I asked my mom when I was 
younger why they wanted us to 
do that. Isn’t that selfish? She 
explained that it was because you 
would be better suited to help 
others. Even though it makes 
sense now, it didn’t then.

Then in freshman year of high 

school, we were asked to make 
goals for ourselves. As soon as 

ELENA 
HUBBELL