‘( Have an opinion? Contact us at opinions @theotherpress.ca & Opinions Rate my proof Why I support student-based opinion websites By Jacey Gibb, Opinions Editor It’s the most wonderful time of year folks! Eggnog has hit the shelves and strands of Christmas lights are being hung with care. Yes, it’s finally time to pick your winter semester courses! It’s an activity that’s enjoyable because you're beyond sick of your Running from Meyer current semester, but it can also be a stress ball-filled period—trying to figure out prerequisites and what's transferable to other schools, but something that also cooperates with your work schedule. Even after all of my courses have jumped through these academic hoops, the final step in my search for the leave any comments they might have and, probably the feature on the site that’s hardest to defend, rate whether the professor is attractive or not. If they are, then a chili pepper shows up next to their name. Informative and classy, eh? My first semester at Douglas, I was solely concerned with “When | finally did look my instructors up on the site, I felt like the comments posted had been pulled directly from my own experiences.” perfect timetable is always to look the class’ instructor up on www. ratemyprofessors.com (RMP). I’m always surprised when someone has a blank face at the mention of the website. On RMP, students are allowed to turn the tables on their traditionally all- powerful professors and give them a grade instead of the other way around. By assigning a mark (out of five) for a professor’s easiness, helpfulness, clarity, and the rater’s interest in the subject, an overall rating is awarded. Students can also enrolling in whatever courses didn’t have a waitlist—looking back, that was probably my first mistake. Still, the result of said attitude was a palette of professors that were as useful as The Price is Right without Bob Barker hosting. Awful, isn’t it? When I finally did look my instructors up on the site, I felt like the comments posted had been pulled directly from my own experiences. Since that bleak freshmen semester, I’ve allowed RMP to become my personal cheat sheet for whenever I’m picking future courses. A lot of people criticize the site for being “superficial,” but I disagree. I like to compare the whole process to that of reading a movie review. Sure, what I’m seeing is someone else’s opinion and maybe it’s one that completely contrasts my own, but that doesn’t make it any less informative. Plus, I know not to absorb it as absolute truth either. One of my favourite professors at Douglas has a terrible rating, but I don’t let that dictate my likes and dislikes. It’s easy to filter out the students who are especially bitter towards the instructor (“S/he was seeeeeeeeeew mean. unfair 2 lol”) and once you’ve done that, the feedback leftover is generally pretty useful. I’m not saying that students should construct a timetable solely around instructors that boast 4.5+ ratings and have a spicy pepper lingering beside them, but rather that it makes a great resource and should be used as such. Okay, you got me! I only choose classes that have hot instructors. Thanks RMP! What exactly makes ‘Twilight’ so bad? By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor appeal of Twilight—films, books, or otherwise. Part of me hopes that a number of years from now, most will admit that it was just the excitement of what was an irresistible bandwagon. Thankfully, like the Jonas Brothers or Paris Hilton, it'll one day disappear [= never understand the Meyer before going into this. What I learned is that Meyer is so infuriatingly dull, it’s almost insulting to those who choose to sit there and watch. But before this kitten pounces, I should say that her best quality is that she really does seem to believe in her books; there was no way she could have anticipated the popularity (and wealth) that were to follow. That “What we have here is not a rags-to-riches story though; what we have is a woman in her thirties who, after steering straight into a brick wall, got an extremely lucky break.’ outside of its core fan base of ten or so people. What helps further my “theory” is that I’ve never heard a reasonable argument for why anyone likes the series; it’s not even grounded in anything (quality or otherwise), which means nothing can further its development, and is therefore deadwood. But it’s silly of me to outright attack the series; it’s not like it wrote itself. No, that dishonourable credit goes to one Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight books. I wanted to be fair, so I watched several interviews with 14 being said, she doesn’t come across as much of an intellectual either. Meyer’s story behind the Twilight series has been consistent: it came to her in a dream (I said it was consistent; I didn’t say it wasn’t stupid). She has repeatedly stated that she never intended to be a writer, as her aspirations never reached far beyond being a stay at home mom—which in itself is a still a fine occupation. What we have here is not a rags-to-riches story though; what we have is a woman in her thirties who, after steering straight into a brick wall, got an extremely lucky break. Now then, allow me to elaborate on what exactly my beef with her is. For one, she’s basically insulted the career choice of thousands by writing a multi- million book series and openly stating that she had no idea what she was doing. That is not an inspirational speech for people who want to become fiction writers or otherwise; “Go for it” doesn’t mean anything when the person saying it literally lucked out. Her mental disassociation with the real world has also resulted in one of the worst female protagonists ever penned. In both the books and films, Bella Swan comes across as a helpless teenage girl with absolutely no aspirations outside of banging her boyfriend/ husband (whom she of course marries at 18). While she is helpless, never moving past being a damsel in distress, she’s also built a reputation for being an awful person; she tortures the two men who love her by finding herself unable to make up her mind. Being indecisive about such a thing for several years does not indicate anything other than a lack of self- confidence. Even when creating life, one of, if not the most empowering i aspect about being a woman, she needs Edward Cullen, Mister f— king Sparkle, to rip the damn thing out of her. Oh whoops. Spoilers! I know Meyer isn’t writing Bella like this intentionally—as I said, Meyer isn’t an intellectual; she didn’t go on a quest to make women and writers alike look like idiots. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore these aspects about the series either. The young women and girls who indulge in this tripe are free to enjoy it, but there should always be someone to let them know that neither Bella nor Meyer should be role models for anyone.