[6501] in APO-L
Re: Calendar girls
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ian Douglas Agranat)
Wed Aug 4 23:27:18 1993
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 1993 23:25:56 EDT
Reply-To: Ian Douglas Agranat <ian@agranat.com>
From: Ian Douglas Agranat <ian@agranat.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L%PURCCVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Chip,
From your posting to APO-L:
>From going to the CPW this past weekend, my brothers have come up
>with a great idea on promoting rush for this quarter and for several quarters
>to come. This HUGE idea (basically from a couple
>of people in the chapter) is to put to use some talent found in
>the rest of the chapters. This desk top calendar will be used to
>promote rush and the fraternity on the campus of Auburn and will
>be a great tribute to our brother co-ed chapters. Those of you
>brothers who would like to enter, please send an 8" x 10" picture
>(preferably glossy) to Delta Chapter, Foy Union Building at
>Auburn University, AL 36849. Please be sure to indicate age,
>chapter, and school....with, of course, name. Any Questions? :)
>
>
>In LFS,
>
>Chip Watts
>Delta 1136
>Auburn University wattswa@mail.auburn.adu
And from your followup posting to APO-L:
>Swimsuit, preferably...not nude unless in GREAT taste...
>preferably females...guys, ok, too, I guess...
>
>Chip Watts
>Delta 1136
>Auburn University wattswa@mail.auburn.edu OR aphio@mail.auburn.edu
Forgive me, but I just couldn't keep my thoughts to myself this time. Let me
be among the first of your Brothers to suggest that the concept of an
"APO female swimsuit calendar" is offensive to me, and perhaps to many of
my fellow Brothers of both genders for a number of reasons.
First, the WOMEN of APO are capable of quite a bit more than displaying skin
for the benefit of the presumably male gaze. What is this "great tribute"
you offer to your co-ed brothers? Drool?
Second, APO as we know is a SERVICE fraternity. I would not be surprised if
a social fraternity put together a swimsuit (or nude, or worse) calendar.
But I believe that APO can be far above such obsolete behaviours. Why not
a calendar depicting the men and women of APO posing not in their swimsuits,
but in their colors, armed with paint brushes, rakes, hammers, saws, and
the occasional front-end-loader doing service? Now, that's a tribute I
don't think anybody could object to! And, I suspect it would attract more
service-minded people for your rush instead of men who really want to, how
to put this delicately? Meet the people in the pictures (because they
clearly have so much in common to talk about).
Third, we are leaders. As the world changes, APO should be on the forefront,
not clinging to the past. It won't be long now before openly sexist words
and acts will be frowned upon as openly racial words and acts are frowned upon
today. There is a significant amount of evidence to suggest that the
misrepresentation of gender stereotypes in attitudes that promote pornography,
treat women as objects (such as swimsuit clad skin in a calendar as if from
the Playboy of before our times), female roles in movies, television, etc.
lead directly to instances of various forms of violence against women from
sexual harrassment to battering to rape to murder. Let us all be sensitive
to that.
Disclaimer: I'm not willing to enter into a debate on APO-L about the validity
of women's issues (since that would not be an approprate topic for this mailing
list). However, if you would like to engage in a private discussion with me,
I am willing.
I appologize for my harsh tone, and I'm sure that you didn't see or intend
any harm or offense by your posting. I am just very sensitive to these
particular issues because I have been fighting long and hard battles for
gender equality for a very long time, and the concept of a swimsuit APO
calendar goes against all the work I have done in my adult life for women
and for APO.
In Leadership, Friendship, and Service,
Ian Douglas Agranat, EZ '87
-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Ian Douglas Agranat, President | 1993 Walk for Women's Lives, Co-chair
Agranat Systems, Inc. | Lexington NOW Women in the Media Task Force
ian@Agranat.COM | Waltham Battered Women Support Committee,
Consulting: | Steps to Shelter Committee 1988-1993
o Communications Technology | "Proud to be a Feminist"
o Embedded Real-Time Systems +-----------------------------------------------
o Unix internals | People Making a Difference, Board of Directors
o Device Drivers | Alpha Phi Omega, Section 96 staff
-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
