Is Gurim favored in Zimriyah? Part 1

When it comes to Zimriyah, is it fair for every other aydah to match up with Gurim? There is no question that Gurim is at a significant disadvantage because of the age difference, and yet most years they do quite well in terms of rankings. How is this possible, and is it true that they might be given a leg up?

When people ask these types of questions, often times there is no factual basis for the answers that are given. People say it all the time, but how can we tell if Gurim is in fact favored? Is there proof besides either looking at individual years, or just going by a gut feeling?  Back in 2007, right after Gurim almost won Zimriyah, I was in the old roshes room having a heated debate with Seth Pertain about the validity of their near victory. My argument was that Gurim was good, but not great, nothing compared to how Maalot or even the third place Kerem performed. I said that Gurim is held to a different standard, and frankly it isn’t fair for the rest of the adyot that they are allowed to compete. His response was that I was a) a sore loser and b) they deserved second place. I couldn’t argue without actual statistical proof, so I gave up. However, now three years later, I have decided to actually look at the numbers and see how the adyot have performed each year over the past ten years. In order to do a proper analysis, I gave 6 points for first place, 5 for second, 4 for third, 2 points if the aydah didn’t place and I subtracted .5 if an aydah tied[1]:

Gurim	30.5
Kfirim	29
Arayot	26.5
Leviim	40
Maalot	42.5
Kerem	41.5

When I did this the first time, one thing clearly jumped out. Leviim through Kerem all perform about equally, and Gurim through Arayot perform about 10 to 12 points worse. Gurim, in fact, does better than Kfirim and does quite better than Arayot. However, I was not done looking at the data. I also counted how many times each aydah placed in the top three:

Gurim	5
Kfirim	4
Arayot	2
Leviim	6
Maalot	7
Kerem	8

What does this tell us now? Gurim places 5 times which is more than Kfirim and Arayot, and almost as much as Leviim. Does this mean that Gurim is doing almost as well as Leviim? NO! Leviim has almost 10 more points than Gurim has!  Something fishy must be going on.

Before I throw my final set of numbers at you, I want to remind you that Gurim are the 8, 9 and 10 year olds. Their counselors stand in the back row of the bleachers in order to give the aydah some added sound. Their songs are simple; their hand motions are even more so, and there are never Harmonies or Solos unless it is in Shir Israeli so that the aydah does not have to learn all of the words. In short, how can an aydah like this perform and do better than Kfirim and Arayot?

To really drive this point home, I wanted to know the answer to a simple question. Given that an aydah placed, what can I say their average position is? In mathematical terms, I throw away the points assigned by default (anything 2 or below) and then I add up their score.  I then divide this number by the amount of times they have placed.  Given an aydah does well (top three), how well do they do?

Aydah	Places in Top 3	Total Points Given Top 3 finish	Average Place (6,5,4 scale)	Standard Deviations away from mean	Percentile
Gurim	5	21	4.20	-1.22	89
Kfirim	4	17.5	4.38	-0.90	82
Arayot	2	11	5.50	1.13	13
Leviim	6	32.5	5.42	0.98	16
Maalot	7	36.5	5.21	0.61	27
Kerem	8	37.5	4.69	-0.34	63
Average	5.33	26	4.88	0.00	50

What does this mean? The most important stat to look at is the Percentile category. This is an indication, as a relationship to other aydot, of how well they do given that they make the top three. The higher percentile, the worse one performs in this situation. What does that mean? I’m going  to use a football metaphor to explain.

Imagine that placing in Zimriyah is like the NFL playoffs, and the first place finisher is the Superbowl champion. If you make it to the playoffs (the top three) you either do well (Superbowl) or do poorly (lose in the first round). Now, in a lot of years there are teams that are mediocre, but make the playoffs because they come from a bad division.  In general, they end up losing pretty bad. If this were to happen over many seasons in a row, they would amass a very bad playoff record. You might look at the stats and say, wow this team is making it to the playoffs a lot, they must be good. Or you could realize they come from a bad division, and once there, they end up losing, because they are really not good in the first place. This is Gurim. They make the playoffs (Top 3) because they have a bad division (being favored) not because they are good at football (Zimriyah).

     Here’s another sports metaphor: Gurim is like a high school basketball team, Kfirim and Arayot are like College basketball teams and Leviim-Kerem are like an NBA teams. The judges think that the college team can compete against the NBA team. But guess what, they get crushed. However, because everyone knows how unfair it would be for a high school team to play an NBA team, the judges let the high school team start with 50 points. Even though the NBA team still wins, the competition appears a lot closer.

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[1] It is a little more complicated than this. My rules are basically as follows: the total amount of points per Zimriyah is 21 (6,5,4,3,2,1).  In a normal Zimriyah, only the top three aydot are announced so the last three aydot have to be given 2 points each (to compensate for the last 6 points). However, in some years when there is a tie, essentially the point value for the four aydot are known, but everyone’s point total is adjusted based on 21 points. For example in 2009 when the order was A / Kf,K / M, the point total awarded was A=6, Kf and K = 4.5, M= 3, G and L = 1.5. This totals 21. 

Making Camp a Safer Space: Sex, Gender, Language, and the Value of Respect (4/4)

I already gave an example how poor judgment in 2007 led to campers’ singing “Rotzeh Banot” in front of the whole camp. However, that same year (and the year before), the rosh of Kerem 07 did something positive as Kerem Rosh that I, unfortunately, did not have the courage to do or even to suggest. He convinced his Kerem campers that putting zoogs on the plaque was an inappropriate thing to do. If you were to look at the Maalot ’06 plaque, the only zoogs would be in-bunk best friends, and if the 2007 plaque were to exist (completely another story), there would have been no zoogs at all.  As I sit back and write this now, I am ashamed that I not only allowed my campers to put zoogs on the plaque, but I also let them include my name. For me, there are a few issues I have with zoogs on plaques.

First, plaques encourage an atmosphere of unhealthy pressure and sexual competition.  If I were to put a voice recorder in the Maalot or Kerem bunk, I’d certainly get many, many variations on the same theme: 

“Come on, hookup with her for the plaque. You will be enshrined forever.” These types of comments play off of the notion of “looking up,” which I wrote about in my post on camp traditions:

“They read, reread, and re-reread every single plaque in these buildings. They represent a portal into the past, a “synopsis” of that particular year. To creators and the readers of the plaque, this is what Yavneh represents, the names and the memories of past campers.” - The Meaning of Tradition

Thus, a hookup becomes an unquestionably necessary, super important experience for boys to undergo, primarily as a way for them to “earn their spot” on a plaque.  This undue stress on the importance of the hookup creates an unhealthy environment of sexual pressure.  In day-to-day conversations in the boys’ bunks, the plaque is used as a tool to pressure other boys to hook up with others, even if they may feel uncomfortable about doing it.  Plaques put undue pressure on kids who may not be ready to engage in certain sexual behaviors, or who might just feel uncomfortable publicizing what they would like to be private moments. However, the plaque system seems to insist that if you are a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boy, then you 1) should be hooking up, and 2) should want to tell people about it.  There is also often a group mindset among the boys’ bunks that they, collectively, have to set a new “hookup record.” On the other hand, I know of a few counselors in the past that would sit down with their campers and have a serious talk about these issues. It is too bad that these counselors are in the minority.

Granted, girls’ bunks also often make their own plaques. But the hookup prestige works according to a sexual double standard.  Plaques socially elevate the boys who hook up with a lot of people but shame girls who do the same. Certainly, this double standard exists beyond Yavneh, but plaques and the hookup culture at camp tend to reinforce the double standard rather than attempt to weaken it. Boys who go through the Kerem bunk can recite with reverence the boys who have had many zoogs during the summer, but these same boys will laugh at and insult the girls who appear multiple times. No male counselors worry or become concerned when their campers engage in multiple hookups over the course of a summer, but if a girl does, she often earns a negative reputation, and is questioned about her self-confidence by her friends, counselors and sometimes even by upper staff. Again, I know that girls make plaques and put zoogs on them, but the culture of competition, objectification, and disrespect is much less present among girls’ bunks.

So, as a counselor, what can be done? Counselors must recognize that their campers are growing into their own sexuality and that they can play an active and productive role in teaching them to be proud of themselves physically and emotionally and not be scared or ashamed of whom they are.  This means that if one of their campers goes on a Shabbat walk, or kisses, or hooks up with someone, that perhaps it shouldn't just be something for the counselors to gossip over at their next staff meeting. Rather, a counselor might ask the camper about it. Certainly, not in a judgmental, or angry, or even hyper-worried tone--but in a way that demonstrates their presence as a supportive and more experienced ally.  Teens can engage in sexual behaviors for a variety of reasons, and it should be a counselor's job to help discern that. Ultimately though, tradition or not, from now on, plaques need to be created without zoogs on them for both boys and girls. Maalot and Kerem madrichim … the responsibility lies with you.

It is clear from the past few months, and of course from the past 14 years, that I absolutely love Yavneh. It has given me so much, and taught me so much about myself. I feel it is the best place for any Jewish youngster who is interested in camp. However, it is not perfect. In my mind, Yavneh needs to be a place that is safe from intolerance, objectification, and sexism. Right now, some traditions and structures at camp are inappropriate and need to be changed. More than anyone else, it is the male counselors who need to assume the role to make sure these changes take place, and the female counselors to play an active role in promoting this change. Maybe it’s too much to ask of 18, 19 and 20 year olds. But I hope it isn’t.

My Response

Rather than finishing up my the posts I started two weeks ago, I have decided to instead respond to a comment left by someone. If you would like to view the initial comment please direct your attention to the eighth comment down on this post. Everyone, please feel free to respond, and if you do decide to comment, it would be great if you could do it here. 


I will finish up my post about Gender, Sex, Language and Respect next week before Passover starts.

Anonymous-

I have not received such a critical remark before, and even though I am hesitant, after some thought I have decided to respond publicly. I will treat this comment with respect, even though I feel I wasn’t given the same deference. 

In your comment, you make two different arguments. You first try to make a connection between girls not being funny and their divisiveness in the bunk, compared with the boys who you think are funnier, due to their cohesiveness as a bunk. You use examples about the girls such as, “tended to have more drama,” and “they formed smaller cliques and often, in groups of three or four, gossiped about each other.”  Where about the boys you say, “exhibited a stronger group dynamic,” and “we sat as an entire bunk and respected each other.” Secondly, you personally attacked me by saying that “I think [I’m] and expert, because I read a couple of article on heteronormativity or feminism,” and I should “reconsider [my] unfair, scathing criticism of boys at Yavneh.”

I would like to start my response with three examples from my own experiences on Kerem staffs. Just as yours don’t, these examples shouldn’t be taken as a universal indicator, because our differing experiences at camp are relatively limited, and generalizing either way isn’t fair. This past summer, one of the most drama-centric situations that I had to deal with happened in the boys bunk. There were two groups of friends that, whether the members of each group admitted it or not, divided the bunk, and caused unnecessary strife and hurt feelings. It turned into a joke, but it wasn’t. The joke was used to cover up the resentment that they had for each other. Collectively they would never admit it, but in one-on-one conversations, they told us that it deeply affected them. Because they were boys, they were not allowed to be labeled as “cliquey” so the issue was largely ignored, but if the same exact situation happened in the girls bunk, it would have received a lot of attention and generated extensive discussion to remedy the situation.

Second, this past summer, the exact opposite situation that you described – boys hanging out in the bunk lounge and girls hanging out in cliques - happened. When I was in the boys bunk at night, you would have a few boys scattered around the bunk, a few in the lounge, a few on a bed, etc. Some were loud and obnoxious, trying to pull pranks on sleeping campers. Conversely, when I would visit the girl’s bunk, almost every single one of them would hang out in the lounge together, before heading off to bed. The boys in this case were disparate; the girls, cohesive.

Finally, back in 2006 and 2007, I distinctly remember many instances when my boys did anything but respect each other. I remember when one camper came to a counselor crying because of a deeply personal and inappropriate criticism of the size of his penis. I remember a situation when one camper got so mad about a prank pulled about candy bar, that it took several lengthy conversations just to calm that camper down so that he could talk rationally. And I remember the tasteless, shameful, and downright ridiculous conversations about particular girls in the ayah. In all of these situations, where was the respect?

Neither your examples nor mine should paint a picture of what boys and girls bunks should look like. Every aydah works differently, and to pretend that you know what happens across the board is quite ignorant. When I built my argument, I sincerely tried to gain some perspective on the dynamics of the girls bunks. My comments and criticisms of the status quo are based on things that I’ve observed, discussed, and seriously considered.

I don’t really see your connection between cohesiveness of a bunk and being funny. Let’s not pretend that boys sit around the bunk giving constructive criticism to their standup comedy routines. I believe that boys are taught that they can only strive to be one type of person. With comments thrown around like “You’re so gay,” or “Don’t be such a pussy,” the idea that anything that deviates from the heterosexual, alpha male, is undesirable and gains momentum. The cohesiveness that you claim is in the boys’ bunk only goes against your theory of respect. If it does exist, it is only because of the lack of respect that molds boys into one particular type. If I were gay, I certainly would not feel comfortable living in the bunk.

It is also clear that every bunk/aydah/individual is different, and these situations arise on both sides, but the bigger goal is to create a camp environment in which cliquey/abrasive/demeaning behaviors are minimized or handled effectively and equally regardless of sex.

Your second argument, that “I think [I’m] and expert, because I read a couple of article on heteronormativity or feminism,” is ad hominem, plain and simple. I'm not going to play the "let's swap credentials game," because that's silly. You’ve completely missed the point I’m making by focusing on my worthiness and authority to make an argument at all. This is about encouraging people to think reflectively and openly confront each of our roles in making camp a more respectful place. I hope that you, along with many others, can join me. In doing so, though, we have to abandon the tendency to attack others. We have to insist upon respectful dialogue.

Thank you for posting this and sharing your opinion. It has helped confirm to me the necessity of what I am doing and made it explicitly clear that this post on gender issues at camp has merit. Individuals at Yavneh and the camp community as a whole must take this issue to heart, see beyond their own two eyes, self-reflect, and realize that they are not perfect.

Making Camp a Safer Space: Sex, Gender, Language, and the Value of Respect (3/4)

Beyond individual KTV skits or songs, sexism is sometimes built into camp traditions. For the past few years, for example, our camp has had an annual Powderpuff football game. Superficially, Powderpuff seems to challenge traditional gender roles, with boys cheerleading while girls play football. But if you look deeper, three aspects of the game suggest that the tradition reinforces, rather than challenges, gender norms. First, the boys mostly treat it as a joke. They are dressed up as female cheerleaders on the sidelines (more on this below) and laugh when the girls playing do something stupid or wrong. The mindset is one of entertainment rather than serious support. Second, boys still retain the power. Who coaches? Who runs the practices? Who sets the plays? Who makes all of the decisions? As with grilling, male campers retain the power to grant special, limited access to their otherwise all-male world of football. Finally, the boys’ dressing up emphasizes the notion that in order to be cheerleaders, they have to feminize themselves by wearing girls’ clothes. “Real” boys still cannot be cheerleaders. I say all of this to point out that that if you delve a little deeper, it’s not difficult to recast the ritual as sexist and offensive.

In its current form, Powderpuff is not a game that should happen at Yavneh. What can be done? A first simple step is to get rid of the name. Powderpuff in general has negative associations. Why can’t we just call it girls playing football? Does it really need a special distinction? Second, I would advocate for girls to play football often and early. Assign girls football in kfirim, and have an experienced female counselor lead it. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but learning the rules, and playing the game is a fun alternative to kickball. In addition, let’s have more sports games where girls from different aydot can play against, and with, each other. It happens all the time for the boys on Shabbat, why can’t it for the girls as well? In fact, on Shabbat, boys should be a lot more actively inclusive, because there are usually little to no opportunities for girls to play sports. and Finally, I want to challenge the girls and their counselors to care about taking ownership of Powderpuff. Let’s have female coaches who run the practices and design the plays. Boys are not the ones playing the game. The girls are.

Even more serious than Powderpuff, though, is the lack of respect that male campers and counselors sometimes give to the girls and women at camp. I have already given a few examples of this earlier, but one more example particularly sticks out for me. I remember distinctly sitting in the roshes’ room, brainstorming with a female rosh aydah about how she could be and act more authoritative. She said that whenever she would tell a certain male camper what to do, that camper would either laugh at her, or completely ignore her as if she had no authority to discipline him or any boy campers. Furthermore, she described how the male madrichim did nothing and refused to step in and back her up. She hated how she had to go to her co-rosh for things as small as telling kids to be quiet during Birkat Hamazon. Such a status quo is unacceptable, and we can start to change it by expecting male madrichim to set an example by respecting female roshei aydah. If they do not, they need to be dealt with and spoken to every single time. By passively standing by and watching a Rosh discipline, counselors are not actively doing their jobs.

It is somewhat ironic that I spent the last few pages of this blog entry only addressing boy-girl subjects but advocating against heternormativity. Camp is and will continue to confront issues of homosexuality and transgender. Right now, the policy at camp leaves much room for improvement. It certainly is not an easy subject to create rules around, but camp needs to have a policy that does not hurt, discourage, demean, or ruin any campers’ experience because of the way they identify. In my opinion, campers can and should be expected to be accepting and inclusive. However, this is not to say that there is even a good option of how to handle these situations. Often times, home and school life for these kids can be even worse, and they look forward to camp as a place to go to get away from it all, just like everyone else. However, when it comes down to it, if you identify as anything that isn't purely straight, is camp going to make you feel accepted, both explicitly and implicitly?" I think the answer is a pretty definitive no. We need to figure out how to be a place that is accepting of everyone and eliminate our heteronormative tendencies.

Making Camp a Safer Space: Sex, Gender, Language, and the Value of Respect (2/4)

Alright, everything is back up and running.


I will resume the schedule that I stated last week. 


Thursday, April 7th 
Tuesday, April 12th.


Once again, sorry for the delay.


Continued from Last Week:


As stated in my introduction, the way in which male campers discuss girls, and the underlying bunk culture that is cultivated, is quite inappropriate. Worse though, male counselors most often ignore or even participate in such conversations.  Counselors at camp are supposed to be role models and mentors.  That being said, it is completely unacceptable for them either to ignore or actively perpetuate such language and attitudes. Camp does try to institute policies and instruct counselors how to handle these situations, but often, the counselors either ignore the training or actively defy it.  Furthermore, if counselors are ever confronted about their participation (or willful ignorance), they often dismiss these conversations as “typical boy talk” and say that the kids don’t actually mean it.  To me, this response is unintelligent and insulting. How many times have I been told that a girl has no place to write anything for KTV because she isn’t funny? How many times has GK been asked to leave late night BBQs for supposedly infringing on the boys’ personal space and for stealing their food? How many times have I heard that the boys “run the aydah,” are its leaders and stars, and the girls play no role in shaping the aydah’s character or presence? Is this “typical boy talk?” Furthermore, does its being “typical” make it any more acceptable?

All of these comments reflect notions of sexism, superiority, and exclusion.  The first comment about KTV is a problem of essentialization, in which Kerem boys assume that girls are, on a whole, inherently unfunny.  Again, here it’s worth recalling the gender/sex introduction.  To make these categorical assumptions about men, women, and humor is to conflate sex with gender. The comment about leaders of an aydah relate to excluding women from holding positions of importance in the public eye.  The BK boys believe that they retain the exclusive privilege of allowing or denying GK girls access to rituals, spaces, and leadership positions that are considered highly valued in camp life—KTV hosts, BBQ grillers, etc. Yes, girls commonly take on the more active leadership roles in Maccabiah and Zimriyah, but so do boys (take me, for example). On the other hand, girls are rarely the ones to fall into the untraditional leadership roles in the public eye during the summer.  As a result, girls may gradually come to think that they can’t be funny, or a make a killer hamburger on the grill.  Gender expectations, reinforced by campers and counselors around them, help define their own opportunities.  Male madrichim, the vast majority of whom were once campers and Kerem themselves, enable this behavior under an ostensible commitment to “tradition.”  Unfortunately, sometimes traditions are undeniably sexist and must be modified, if not done away with altogether, for the sake of equality and respect.

I think it is important to note that, camp has certainly made positive, impactful decisions with regard to policies and protocols of respect. First, over the past ten years, camp has begun to strictly enforce a no-raid policy that prohibits reckless and inappropriate behavior. About ten years ago, boys would raid girls’ bunks, violate their space, and even steal their underwear. Now, there is a zero-tolerance policy regarding raids. More recently, Yavneh introduced a worthwhile program in which social workers facilitate real conversations with the older aydot in bunk discussions and discuss gender and sex issues. They are certainly not 100% effective, but any positive conversation is a step forward.

There are, however, three main areas that still need to be addressed: the public and private degradation of women, the reinforcement of confining gender roles through particular pe’ulot, and general lack of respect toward female campers and counselors. I will address each issue within the context of three separate extended examples.

Back in 2007, as most of you know, I was a Kerem counselor.  For KTV, a few of my male campers decided to create a dance to the song “Rotzeh Banot” and to perform it in between acts. It was a wild success.   Looking back, though, it’s embarrassing that my fellow counselors, upper staff, and I allowed this song to be played in front of the whole camp. This song, which is about a man trying to pick up women at a bar, is disrespectful, objectifying, and completely out of sync with the values camp supposedly endorses. The song starts with a list of women he wants to take back.  The singer doesn’t really care who she is, so long as he gets at least one woman. Toward the end of the song, he says, “Fortunately, God created the right hand,” and goes on to say that he thinks about the same girls when he is masturbating, because in the last line of the song he sings, “Because in my imagination, they all want me.”[1] The message of the song is that women were created for men for the sole purpose of sex, and it is this sense of entitlement throughout the whole song that is most troubling.  Now, I don’t particular care how popular the song was, or anything like that, I just want to ask the reader a legitimate question: is this the kind of song we, at Machaneh Yavneh, should be playing for Gurim kids? For Kfirim kids? For Kerem kids? How can we teach respect when we sing about objectification and treat sex as a game, or competition to prove one’s masculinity? That’s right, we can’t.

To be fair, over the past few years there has been increased awareness about issues of gender and respect for KTV. Members of upper staff have been actively monitoring all of the chosen KTV songs and make sure the content and skits performed by Kerem are appropriate. Yes, it is completely unacceptable for a song like Rotzeh Banot to fall though the cracks, but in general camp has done a good job.

Aside from preventing kids from singing Rotzeh Banot type songs on a stage, how else can we, as male and female counselors combat this degrading sentiment? It is extremely important not to be afraid to be assertive in those trickier situations.  Do I think that a Kfirim girls’ counselor should take away all of her campers’ Seventeen magazines? No, definitely not.  But maybe, instead of just having a "Terri Talk" about how little self-esteem girls have, maybe we could engage these extremely thoughtful 12-year-olds in a discussion about how magazines, movies, and other forms of media help promote messages of unattainable perfection.  Maybe we could also talk about the type of words we used in the bunk, or the Chadar Ochel, or when we were picking out Shabbat clothes, and how that might make things better/worse.  I think counselors are sometimes scared to confront these things so they either pretend they don't exist or deem them "inappropriate" topics for conversation. They're sensitive issues and need to be talked about with extreme care and discretion, but that doesn't mean they should be avoided or ignored.

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[1] All of the song translations came from http://smart.fm/goals/36938?ul=en

UPDATE

I am sorry to inform all of you that due to some complications, I am unable to upload the second out of four blog posts today. Please check back later this week, and hopefully I will be able to post it.

Look for a Wednesday or Thursday posting.

I would also like you to know about the fact that if you don't want to have to remember to come to my blog to read it, you can give blogspot your email, and they will email you the post whenever I update my blog. I promise you, there is no spam attached to it, I have it set up for myself as well.

Thank You to everyone who reads my blog, and I am sorry about the inconvenience.