Editor:
"The Trojans are getting great penetration on the Beavers." My, my, how amusing Ÿ didn't I hear that one in high school? Obviously Brad Allis, creator of the Wildcat's "Slacker Life," (Nov. 14) didn't. Or maybe he's just recycling.
Yes, I could go on about the obvious sexism and how inappropriate this kind of humor is on a campus where women often become rape victims, but Allis knows all of that. No, what we're seeing here, folks, is not a lack of common sense or social courtesy, but rather a tremendous lack of creativity and risk-taking masked by sexist humor. It happens all the time when so-called creative types run out of ideas which are unique, and instead fall back on "safe" things like jokes about women, violence against women, etc. For example, watch an old "T.J. Hooker" rerun one night. As the ratings went down, the writers tried to increase their viewership by writing more stories involving the murders of women; by the last season, every single episode involved a murdered woman. Not creative, not socially sensitive, but certainly easy to write!
Let's face it, Brad, what you did was really easy to do. In fact, let's pick some new teams and some new stereotypes. How about some gay humor Ÿ "The Trojans are getting great penetration on the Vikings," or Lorena Bobbit humor Ÿ "The Rams stepped all over the Trojans!" Or even "The Patriots used up the Trojans and threw them out Ÿ of the playoffs!" Anything is possible in a world where the writer "slacks" off by falling back on sexist material.
But why not try something new, like being creative? Take some risks, Brad Ÿ I dare you!
Lisa-Anne Culp
Rhetoric, Composition and the Teaching of English Graduate Student