i
IS
page five/the journal/april 18, 1972
...0 column of impressions
Sara’
s
grave
.by Charlie herndon
Things that I wonder about; Will Nixon use nuclear devices in Vietnam? Why is
there a small cage of animal bones in Valandignham Glen? Why are the dorms not
air conditioned on 88-degree days?
Can you remember: Who your first date was? What your first meal at summer
camp was? Who threw the last Frizbee that you caught? Where you first heard the
word "God"?
Have you ever: Broken a toe? Had an elevator party? Memorized the
instructions that come with Hai Karate? Enjoyedtwo SAGA meals consecutively?
Things that will never happen: Dr. Jordan becoming the next Chancellor here.
An air conditioned Reference section in the Library. Two thousand students
voting in a campus election.
Supposedly, the Food Services Committee has voted not to renew SAGA's
contract for dormitory food service. Now all that is needed is S.M. Vaughn's
approval of the action. Good riddance, SAGA! Rumor also has it that
Servomation will replace them in the fall.
This spring's legislative elections may turn out to be interesting after all. There
is a total of nine incumbents running for re-election who may not make it again.
Those in danger of being unseated are: Fish Foster, Charlie Herndon, and Jane
Sigmon (Humanities); Richard Butterfield and Ron Young (Social and
Behavioral); David House (Math and Nat. Sciences); Tim Page (Architecture); and
last but not least, Phil Nesbitt and Boone Wayson who the only two running for
Junior Class President.
How committed to the rights of students was the past Legislature? Earlier in
the year, the Legislature, behind the leadership of Stan Patterson, acted to
prevent the dorm students from being unfairly assessed a $2.00 damage fee. Later,
however, when the students recieved notice of the $50.00 Tuition Deposit
requirement, there was not one wordspoken in the Legislature about the fairness
of this action to students. One didn't have to go far to hear the grumbles of
disapproval, yet the student leaders never once considered this matter important
enough to investigate.
There is a committee which is in the process of determining the validity of the
requests of students for a waiver from this tuition deposit in case of hardship, etc.
This committee is composed entirely of administrative officials. We have no way
of knowing who is getting shafted by them.
Possibly, everyone felt that because this was a state law, that contesting it in
any way was futile. However, merely being a state law doesn't make it right. The
time, place, and the support was there for action. Presumably, if the student
leaders had acted quickly and efficiently in an attempt to determine the fairness
of this policy, the students would have accepted their decision. After all, what are
leaders for? And as one official on the Waiver Request Committee commented to
me..."What the hell would happen if 3200 continuing students refused to pay that
deposit?" Think about it...
Yes sir-! It's true. We are returning to the good old days. You know, with the
tennis shoes, the romantic movies, the soft music, and the resumption of the
bombing of North Vietnam. Anybody going th New York for the 22nd?
Rumor has it that our Chancellor, D. W. Colvard will be leaving us soon for
Lord only knows where. This will undoubtedly precipitate a succession crisis. For
my part, I nominate Bonnie Cone.
This institution is growing at an unbelievable pace! Why, the administrative
officials even have to wear identification tags. You don't believe me? Well just
look around. For example: Ken Sanford, Director of the Office of Information,
has been seen wearing his own SANFORD button; and. Joe Bowles, Publications
Director, has been seen wearing his BOWLES button . Great idea, huh? But when
did Ed Wayson change his name to McGOVERN?
Then Mercifully I Fainted
A Pretty Boy Is Like A Malady
For all of you who have been
curious but haven't been able to bring
yourselves to pick up or open the
newest Cosmopolitan, Burt Reynolds
has a nice body. He's lying there very
coy on a bearskin rug, a cigar
protruding from his mouth at a
Groucho Marxish angle (Groucho Marx
as a foldout! Now there's a thought),
his left arm and hand coyly and
strategicly placed, air-brushing
assiduously applied. Helen Gurley
Brown has struck again.
The the English edition of Cosmo,
Paul de Feu, a construction worker, is
featured - the joke there being that
Paul de Feu is at Cosmo chauvanisticly
prints, "Mr. Germaine Greer N^
heights for us all. 'Didn't Al Capp do
like this several years ago
Abner as the foldout in
something
with L'il
Plowboy.
The
whole idea has an Al Capp
mentality. Is it supposed to ^ an
example of new female freedorn? Now
fourteen year-old girls will have
something to sneak
night and hide in the back of the
rinset Are we on the road to men
becoming so-called sexual objects? Will
they start worrying about their bodies
now? Will padded jocks become the
in-thing as Cosmo coyly prints "3" by
6’/5" limp", 6" by 7" erect??
Perhaps a "respectable" magazine
combining Cosmo and Playboy will
emerge featuring a happy, healthy,
air-brushed nude couple, with nice
homey shots of them in everyday
half-nude life doing such nich homey
things as cleaning the bathtub and
emptying the kitty-litter. Will Cosmo
start printint erotic poetry in praise of
the symmetry of men's buttocks? Will
the buttocks of Cosmo's foldouts have
to serve the function of the breast of
Playboy's and Penthouse's fold-outs,
and will women write letters, a' la
Penthouse! "How dare you chose Mr.
X as Plaything of the Year? His cheeks
have nowhere the fullness of those of
Mr. Y in April's issue. I'd kick him out
of bed." The possibilities are endless.
Burt Reynolds was not paid, and
Paul de Feu received only $500, which
seems unfair. I supose their comfort is
the realization that relatively few of
their fold-out photos will end up with
dried sperm sticking to they. (A
woman wrote Penthouse asking why
they didn't put in a nude male and the
editor replied "Because it's the
international magazine for men."
Obviously, Penthouse considers male
homosexuals, something other than
men — what is not clear.)
Another question is: will the idea of
a male nude fold-out sell? Is Cosmo
now speedily going to rise in
circulation to Playboy's volume? Do
women want male nude photos? None
of us, male or female, is conditioned to
think It is generally accepted that men
appreciate the beautiful women in ads,
but has anyone ever considered the
women who are bombarded with
blondes selling cars, brunettes selling
bras, red-heads in 'Vogue', and all the
beautiful girls in all the thousands of
ads? Women too are told, "This is
beauty. This is to be desired."
Is this sort of thing conditioning
women toward a lesbian path, however
latent? It seems a logical conclusion to
draw. Such a practice can hardly breed
narcissism alone, although it
undoubtedly breeds that. After being
praised in song and poetry and being
portrayed as goddesses in ads, women
are then accused of vanity. C'est la
- by Iloyd rote
guerre. Life is full of these little
inconsistencies. So will nude men sell?
Or, alternatively, will a cult of "Male is
beautiful" begin and becarried to its
logical conclusion where men are
sneered at and dismissed if their bodies
are less than perfect? Probably not,
unless more buying power does shift to
women and ad agencies can imply that
if Mr. A. buys a van she may get a lay
from Mr. B, sprawled there so
enticingly on the hood.
It doesn't seem to have occurred to
anybody to try and do away with the
cult of beauty altogether! Which is at
base a cult of cruelty. It is one thing,
and an inevitable state of affairs, to
appreciate and desire the beautiful. It
is another to desire it only to the
exclusion and criticism of the
not-beautiful. This is cruel not only to
women who are not beautiful, but to
ugly men, the deformed, and the old.
And even the beautiful do not last.
Like that little body and saying that
Women's Lib is silly, if a woman just
keeps herself beautiful, any man will
do her proud. What happens to her
when she's 50?