Students and faculty witnessed oppression through such issues as heterosexism, racism, and lookism at the "Tunnel of Oppression" at Ferrell Commons this Wednesday and Thursday.
The Tunnel of Oppression, loosely based off of the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, Ca., is an interactive experience where students and faculty go on a tour through common problems in society. This year, the event focused on spiritual abuse, heterosexism, lookism, racism and relationship abuse. Dr. Teresa Chmelir, associate director of Prevention at the UCF Counseling Center, ran the event for her second time.
"After this experience, I'll think twice about making a gay quip with my army buddies," Mike Martinez, 22, an athletic training major, said.
Martinez has a brother who is homosexual, and in the Tunnel of Oppression, he realized struck that even joking with friends can be hurtful. Martinez said when his brother came out his feelings about homosexuality changed, causing him to be more accepting.
Chmelir said this event is more meaningful than a handout and has a strong impact, especially with hired professional student actors and debriefing rooms, and she weighs the success of this event on how much it impacts each person, not how many attend. Chmelir said most of the tours filled up this year, and on Thursday, UCF administrators took the journey through the tunnel.
The Tunnel of Oppression took place in a pitch-black room with dim lights the tour guides turned on when actors played out skits in each room. In one room, insulting words were painted on the walls, and all of the actors whispered the words on the wall while laughing, becoming louder until stopping simultaneously.
"I feel uncomfortable saying those words, but I'm glad I feel uncomfortable. I hope it makes other people uncomfortable and makes them think," Brittany Arroyo, theater studies graduate and actor for the event, said.
Arroyo says that she has used every curse word in the book and feels more comfortable saying the f-word than saying a derogatory term for a homosexual male. In the event, Arroyo played the part of a girl dealing with lookism, the concept that girls should look a certain way. Arroyo stood in a room with overlapping thoughts about her appearance playing in the background and she induced her own vomiting at the end.
Playing this part, she said, was difficult because she faced thoughts that people would think she was too fat to be bulimic, further cementing the reality of the role she was playing. However uncomfortable, Arroyo said she was glad to help with the cause.
"It's interesting to see girls struggling with this issue because I struggle the opposite way. I actually am 100 pounds," Alexa Riccardi, 19, interdisciplinary studies major, said.
Riccardi said she did not realize there was so much oppression in the world and that she always saw it but did not put much thought into it. For example, she said she has watched when people stared at men holding hands with each other. Staring at these men in a judgmental manner is a sign of heterosexism, more commonly known as homophobia.
"All women have been oppressed, whether by cat calling, being whistled at, or being told to make a sandwich. Even joking around affects women," Alexandra Betrone-Harpst, 20, a finance major, said.
However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. At the end of the event, students and faculty are given the chance to talk about the issues the tour brought to light in a debriefing room.
"Peers can be more powerful than counselors who are 20 years older than them," Chmelir said.
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