[1052] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
"Bling Bling" party posters
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (rax)
Fri Feb 22 16:46:11 2002
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Message-ID: <20020222213451.GF28695@yiff.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 16:34:51 -0500
From: rax <rax@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
So, a few days ago, I noticed posters for some "Bling Bling" party in various
places on campus. Some of them included pictures of a topless man and a topless
woman (not explicit, but obvious), and i said to myself as i walked past it,
"Wow, that's kind of unnecessary." I then continued living my life.
Today, walking around campus, I saw another set of "Bling Bling" posters,
bearing the same information (in a different font) and a very different image.
These posters bore an impressively and disturbingly graphic depiction of
a penis being cut in half by a pair of scissors.
While I certainly do not know, I cannot help but suspect that this may be
the work of whomever created the "Get Nu'dered" posters last (term?year?),
which depicted the male symbol having the arrow removed in a similar fashion.
Those, while I thought they were tasteless, were not directly offensive.
These current posters made my stomach turn.
Now, it is possible that the goal of the posterers was to make my stomach turn.
Well, you certainly succeeded. I am really rather fond of my penis, you see,
and the image of it being cut off is extremely unpleasant. I do not believe
that my penis has ever hurt anyone, nor that many men who walked down the hall
and experienced the same sickening feelings had "guilty penises." You did
succeed, also, in causing me to think about what would make someone put up
these posters - the first posters, which had faded from my memory, returned.
I do not think the first posters were in particularly good taste, and I did
not intend to attend the party in question. However, I do not feel that the
response was at all called for. The portrayal of a shirtless woman as
advertising for a party (and I have asked a number of female friends about
this; they agree with me) is on a completely different scale.
Not only were these posters placed along the infinite corridor, but when I got
home to East Campus and went to the door to front desk, hoping to check my
mail, the same giant picture was in my face. I tore it down, disgusted.
Walking across the courtyard and starting up the stairs, I found that someone
had placed the selfsame poster in a stairwell of East Campus. I tore that one
down also. I was offended that someone felt the need to place this vile
image in my path a number of times, and then inside of my home as well.
If one wanted to parody the poster without being patently offensive, one could
have despicted a number of things: just one dumpy nerd on a couch, perhaps, or
a man being rejected by a woman. That would have been clever, and (at least
comparatively) subtle. I wonder what the reaction to a poster which depicted
a clitoridectomy would be? Certainly and justifiably, negative. Then why is
this even close to acceptable?
Please, whomever is responsible, try to keep in mind that if your goal is to
enlighten, you will not succeed by driving away your target audience.
rax
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