Thursday
Editor in chief: Jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com
CASEY HOLDAHL
Mary-Kate and Ashley
Olsen have their own
magazine. That’s right,
America’s favorite
identical twins have taken control
of another form of media.
What a roller coaster ride it’s
been for the Olsens. Television,
movies, books, phone lines, video
games, their own clothing line and
now the glossy glow of a bimonth
ly periodical. If Howard Stern is
the self-proclaimed “King of All
Media,” then these two are the
supreme intergalactic overlords.
It’s not the fact that the teen dy
namic duo have their own maga
zine that bothers me so much, it’s
the content that really scares me.
First of all, I can only imagine
what these two are really like. Gary
Coleman was only on “Different
Strokes” and a few made-for-TV
movies, and look how he turned
out. These two have spent their
whole lives under a camera, and
though I guess it’s a possibility that
they’ve turned out to be well-adjust
ed members of society, I sincerely
doubt it.
What kind of role
models do the
twins make for the
young girls of
America? In al
most every
photo (of which
there are count
less) of the girls,
they look easily
five years older
than their actual
age of 15. Take
away their
names and
the positioning of
the magazine be
tween “Tiger Beat”
and “Teen Beat,”
and one might mis
take it for the cover
of “Cosmo.”
So you might ask, “What
about the articles?” In de
fense of the Olsens, they do
try to “write” articles that
reinforce positive female
role models. The only prob
lem is that for every article
warning young ladies to be
aware of the stereotype of the
“ultra-slender image of a girl”
in media, there are numerous
pictures of Maiy-Kate and
Ashley, each weighing in at a
healthy 85 pounds a piece. At
least they didn’t put Kate
Moss on their list for
possible first female
presidents.
i Bryan Dixon Emerald
So what’s the
point of picking
on these poor
girls? The
point is this:
There is a
definite
problem
with the
youth of
America to
day. If you
didn’t notice
it when
you were
in high school,
then you can
take a step back
and notice it
now. Young girls
in our country are
growing up idoliz
ing and emulating the
likes of the Olsens, and
nobody seems to mind.
Show a picture of a
waif in a string bikini,
and it raises some eye
brows among parents con
cerned about their daugh
ters’ self-esteem. But the
Olsens? They’re nice
enough, right?
Actually, the twins have
walked in on the ground
floor of a very lucrative busi
ness — making young
girls ieel bad
about themsel ves.
Girls who already
feel well-rounded and secure don’t
buy the Olsens’ halter top with
matching skirt and sandals. And
where the Olsens stop, “Seventeen”
and “YM” pick right up. This could
be all just be a figment of my imagi
nation, but probably not.
Mary-Kate and Ashley are the Joe
Camel of insecurity for a generation
of girls growing up in a booming
economy. The towheaded twosome
are leading the charge for a neo-nar
cissistic generation, refuting the
strides made during that beautiful
recession of the early 1990s.
But today, Mom and Dad are
bringing home six-figure salaries,
and the Olsens are letting the
young ladies know how to spend
their allowance. Girls aren’t grow
ing up with eating disorders be
cause of a lack of prayer in school
or the absence of a flag salute every
morning. They’re growing up feel
ing empty because of the day-by
day assault on their perception of
what a woman is supposed to be.
Mary-Kate and Ashley obviously
aren’t the first to propagate this,
but they are the newest.
I always thought that the contin
uation of Bob Saget’s career would
be the worst thing to spawn from
“Full House.” I guess not.
Casey Holdahl is a columnist for the Ore
gon Daily Emerald. His views do not neces
sarily represent those of the Emerald. He
can be reached at
choldahl@gladstone.uoregon.edu.
Society should blame rape on the predator; not the victim
Guest Commentary
_
Shantell
Rice
Several letters to the editor and an edi
torial (“Are women nothing more
than victims?” ODE, May 2) were
published in the Emerald about
Judge Mitch Crane’s speech on drinking re
sponsibly, I did not attend this presentation,
but I have heard enough to know Crane said
nothing short of how our society views rape:
As the fault of the survivor.
It’s a tragedy that rape is seen this way. The
survivor is usually female. In my four years
here at the University, I have been to count
less presentations about rape. These presen
tations are dominated by females, usually
listening to a male presenter give us safety
tips. We are cautioned to watch our glass
while at a bar or party, so that potential pred
ators don’t slip a substance into our drink.
We are asked to not get intoxicated in order
to prevent sending mixed signals, to avoid
being in a position where a predator can at
tack. Consequently, if we don’t follow these
tips and something happens to us, it is our
own fault. That’s what we get for drinking.
I don’t condemn these safety tips and am
not suggesting that they shouldn’t be fol
lowed. They can stop a tragedy, promote
awareness and possibly make the cruel in
tentions of a rapist more difficult to enact. I
simply ask for the blame to fall where it be
longs: On the predator.
Rape is a male issue. It affects both men
and women, yet it starts with the male. If
men didn’t rape, women wouldn’t be in
danger.
While not every man will rape, every
woman is a potential survivor. Many men
would be appalled if asked not to rape or if
asked to sit and listen to why rape is wrong,
but I’m appalled as well.
I’m appalled that, according to statistics
from the ASUO Women’s Center, one in 12
college men admit to acts that meet legal
definitions of rape and that one out of every
seven women currently attending college
has been raped. I’m appalled that some
where in America, a woman is raped every
two minutes. I’m appalled that a woman is
10 times more likely to be raped than to die
in a car crash.
I am appalled and saddened that my
friend was raped.
My friend was raped. I was not able to
protect her when she needed it most, and
because of that my life has been touched,
and I will never be the same. Survivors are
not to blame for the actions of a predator, but
our society assigns them the blame. Sur
vivors take on this guilt and ask themselves
why they deserve this act of violence. The
answer is simple: There is nothing a person
can do to deserve to be raped.
I would like speakers to come to campus
and speak to male-dominated audiences
about rape. I’d like presenters to explain that
slipping drugs into a person’s drink is illegal
and violating, to explain that a drunk or
passed out woman has not given consent for
sex, and to remind males that the Universi
ty’s student conduct code states that an in
toxicated individual cannot give consent to
sex.
Presenters should explain that mixed sig
nals are not really mixed if one listens. That
no one wants to be raped. And that no
means no.
Shantell Rice is a senior journalism major.
Letters to the editor
Peter DeFazio writes
to The Register-Guard’s publisher
Dear Tony Baker:
A union contract is a guarantee. It en
sures fair play. It gives both partners a
voice. It codifies the labor management re
lationship so that problems are solved in an
atmosphere of trust and confidence. A
union contract is a guarantee that both sides
will do their best.
The Register-Guard has a long history of
doing its best for the community. But your
reputation as a good citizen is at risk as this
labor dispute continues month after month. I
urge you to return to the bargaining table in
good faith with the Eugene Newspaper Guild
to negotiate a fair contract.
This struggle is now two years old, but
there is still time to settle your differences
and make this a win-win for everyone — the
union, management and the community. It’s
what we expect.
Peter DeFazio
Fourth District
U.S. House of Representatives
The real “Flagfolly”
is the “Stars and Stripes”
I did not know until this morning that “Blind
Patriotism 101” was offered at the University.
But from the editorial “Flag Folly” (ODE, May
1), someone has evidently taken the course.
I was appalled to read this editorial, writ
ten by a University student, which is so bla
tantly ignorant of the oppression that die
beloved “Stars and Stripes” has stood for.
The flag flew above armies that forced Native
Americans to move from their homelands to
reservations and a government that called for
Japanese-Americans to be rounded up and
kept in internment camps during World War
II.
Most important is that the flag was a sym
bol of a country that allowed slavery for a
hundred years before the formation of the
Confederate States of America. Thomas Jef
ferson and George Washington were slave
owners, and I don’t hear an uproar about
their profiles being on coins.
This editorial falls under the standard
clich§ of the pot calling the kettle black.
America is just as guilty, if not more, of every
thing of which Pat Payne accuses the Confed
eracy, and nobody is complaining about the
“Stars and Stripes.”
Overcoming racial tensions and hatred is
going to take a lot more effort than simply
redesigning a flag, so why are people wast
ing their time on this issue? Come on peo
ple, we go to a liberal arts university,
shouldn't we be trying to uncover the truths
our society wants to keep hidden from us,
rather than deflecting any guilt by accusing
others?
KatyReiber
senior
history