When sex gets dirty: Yale, watch out

The World According to Carp
    By Benjamin Carp

I don't often read table tents. But the lavender one I saw last week, depicting a muscular alien and two bikini-clad women, immediately caught my eye (a painful experience, I might add). Upon seeing the title "Yale Watch," I thought the National Organization of Women (NOW) was sponsoring a new dramatic series chronicling the adventures of Yale lifeguards and starring David Hasselhoff. The show would involve no eating disorders or breast augmentation, and it would cast Yale men and women instead of California beauties in order to reinforce the self-esteem of appearance-conscious preteens everywhere.

After doing a few interviews, I discovered to my dismay that this was not the case (which isn't to say it's not a good suggestion). Instead, the newly revitalized Yale chapter of NOW has initiated "Yale Watch" in order to raise campus consciousness about images, persons, or things that "degrade women or make them uncomfortable." And last week they targeted the Herald Valentine's Day Issue as pubic enemy number one.

"We want to shake things up," NOW member Marge Bell, MC '98, said. "It's really important that we pay attention to the little ways that our beliefs about the sexes structure our everyday interaction." Why single out this particular drawing? The sight of two scantily clad women, prostrate at the feet of a male alien, struck Yale's NOW members as particularly offensive. In the context of a Valentine's Day issue, the image had little to do with love, and more to do with degrading women.

The artist, Carlos Mena, TC '98, maintains that he was not consciously trying to convey the attitude that "women are worthless and I shall henceforth walk the earth seeking to degrade them in as many ways as I can." Instead, like any artist, he merely sought to attract the viewer's attention with a striking piece of artwork (and, as you might have noticed from all the lavender table tents, it worked). As in comic books and swimsuit calendars, unrealistically perfect male and female figures attract such attention. "Not everyone's out to oppress everyone else," Mena said.

CARLOS MENA/YH

"The style mimics the comic book medium, where everyone is big-breasted and built like [the old] Barbie," Lauren Anderson, MC '99, editor-in-chief of the Herald Valentine's Day Issue, said. She defends the artist on the grounds that he probably did not intentionally seek to offend; nor was she personally offended by the graphic. However, she recognizes the offensive potential of the artwork, and in retrospect she would have cut the graphic (as well as some others), had the Herald not needed artwork so desperately.

Besides, as Anderson said, "The whole point of the issue is entertainment at the expense of somebody else." A touching Valentine's Day sentiment, I agree, but we'll save that problem for another opinion piece.

This weekend, after watching Swingers, my girlfriend (Anne Mosher, MC '98, also a member of NOW) asked, "Do guys really talk like that when women aren't around?" Shifting uncomfortably, Carlos and I had to answer that we did sound something like that. Anne then concluded that the artwork is merely an aspect of this "men's club" attitude. Unfortunately, the Valentine's Day issue was read by both sexes, and one took umbrage with his imagery.

"We're all sexist," Bell said. Consciously and unconsciously, all of us make sexist statements every day--the graphic in question was merely an uncomfortably egregious example of this sexism. NOW should be lauded for its efforts to raise the consciousness of Yalies about sexism on campus. Don't blame one artist, however, for what's wrong with all of us, male and female. Mena's artwork merely sought to shock and did not reflect any desire to subjugate the opposite sex.

One might ask, therefore, which is worse: unintentionally demeaning the female half of society or intentionally singling out an individual for public reproach? Yale Watch strives for a noble end, but that does not justify its vaguely ignoble means. I agree with the principle behind Yale Watch, but in the future, we should refrain from tarring and feathering a person without giving him a chance to defend himself--which brings us again, of course, to the questionable premise behind the entire Valentine's Day Issue.

Meanwhile, stick with the dramatic series instead, NOW. Or perhaps devise some other, more interactive means to make us aware of sexism without choosing "targets."

Recent Herald Columns by this Columnist:
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• The Can't-get-busy Tales: V-Day at Yale, 2/13/97
• A full deck of Geek Cards, 1/30/97
• When booty calls, and other 'issues', 1/16/98

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