Where are the protests and activists that the University prides itself on? With Playboy’s shameless recruiting of campus women, I would have thought that University feminists and other activists would be up in arms. I hope I am not the only person who is disturbed by the fact that a pornographic magazine is not only recruiting University women, but also that it is being advertised on University property and in the Emerald.
Pornography is degrading to all parties involved; it reduces women to objects of lust, devalues them as human beings and in doing so it creates in men a distorted view of women.
On a campus which works hard to prevent sexual assault and in a society where we value healthy relationships between the sexes, I simply am baffled at why we are seemingly celebrating Playboy’s campus recruitment.
I am not arguing against Playboy’s right to do business in a free society, but I find it insidious that a magazine is so successful in undermining the values we (hopefully) hold in common here: that women are not mere sexual objects, and degrading anyone to satisfy our base urges is simply wrong.
I also find it equally baffling that some obscure incident can happen on the other side of the world and the entire campus “activist” community is on the streets marching, yet when women are being devalued and objectified in front of our faces, nobody makes a move.
–Zachary White
Junior