Thanks for Fox

Thanks so much for your article “Megan Fox isn’t the only fox.” Noticing the incoming freshmen ladies, and women of all ages, it completely irks me that our gender is still convinced they have to strive to obtain ridiculous cookie-cutter shapes and dumb themselves down to fit our modern media-crazed society. I wish that each woman would recognize “being a young, educated woman already makes you hot.” Not only will they be free to look however they want, but will be released of the burden of feeling inadequate because they may not meet ultimately irrelevant standards.

Letisha McLaughlin

graduate student, physics

Look both ways, please

Crossing the street should not be such a hard concept. Look both ways, and then cross. It seems to me that no one does that anymore. The ones who don’t do it appear to be a part of the huge freshman class that has taken over campus this year. People, you’re in college, you should know how to cross the street without almost getting run over. Use the crosswalks and make sure you make eye contact with the driver you are walking in front of. And please, hurry! We are trying to get somewhere too and have very little patience to sit there while you Bebop on across with your headphones on. Also, it aggravates me more than anything when people don’t use crosswalks and cross when they don’t have the right of way. You’re only endangering yourself and causing more stress for those of us trying to drive through you. We will let you cross, as long you don’t act like you own the road.

I am so tired of almost hitting people crossing the streets around campus and dealing with those that don’t pay attention.

Mae Elizabeth Cooper

senior, extension education

We must increase our consciousness

I went to Harris Field with a friend on Wednesday to walk by the line in front of Campus Cinema at the controversial showing of the movie “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell”.

I noticed two lines there. One line consisted of my fellow students waiting to enter the Campus Cinema to see the movie. The other consisted of students and some staff silently protesting the movie with signs about rape and rape culture.

What was surprising was not the protest but how people reacted to it. I noticed students from the Campus Cinema line inciting the protesters by asking questions like “do you want to see this movie with us? I’m being serious, do you?” Of course they don’t, that’s why they are protesting!

The atmosphere was one in which the protesters were seen as the bad guys.

Why is this the case? Why is it that our society always sees our first amendment right of protesting, despite how positive the message may be, as negative? Why did the police keep watching the peaceful protesters like hawks and completely ignore the people in the Campus Cinema line who continually tried to provoke the protesters? I do not know the answer to these questions but it says a lot about our society if peaceful protesters are seen as unwelcome intruders. If peaceful protesters continue to be seen as unwelcome, how will we ever increase the conscious of our society?

How will we be able to stand up for things that we care about so deeply, whether they its animal rights or gun rights?

If we as a society continue to foster an environment where peaceful protesters are incited by other students and seen as the bad guys, our hope for the future will be completely lost. Our hope to increase the consciousness of a society and the betterment of a people will be diminished.

My point has nothing to do with whether the Union Activities Board should have hosted the movie or not, but more so, with how it is a reflection on our society of the difficulty it takes to create change. As MLK said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

And the answer to the TV/interview crew, associated with the “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” movie, which asked me Wednesday “Isn’t it true that a girl who is raped is not a virgin anymore?” I’m afraid the answer to your question is yes, and that comment alone was enough for me not to want to see the movie.

Timur Ender

junior, criminology