Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Suite 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
Email: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, November 20,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editors:
Salena De La Cruz, Pat Payne
Steve Baggs Emerald
The bare facts
Would you take your clothes off for 8500? Being
a college student and having to work a full-time job
and pay for my schooling, my apartment and my
car, I considered it — for all of two seconds.
When I saw an ad asking for “nude models,” with
the possibility of making 8500 per session, I thought,
I do things that are outlandish and wild all the time,
just to say I did them. But this was beyond that — I
needed to see what it was all about, as a service to
our readers.
I e-mailed a photograph of myself and a contact
phone number. In about 10 minutes, I got a call back
from “Gary” — which may or
may not be his real name —
saying he liked what he saw
and would like to set up an
interview. I agreed to the meet
ing, not knowing what I was
getting myself into.
1 met him at a coffee shop on
18th Avenue. He began by
telling me a little about the
“business” and how they’d been
an established part of the com
munity for more than five years.
It sounded all right until I heard
the details. They would take several still pictures
and/or prints, along with a 20-minute movie that
sometimes could take an hour or more to tape.
The interesting part was I would put absolutely no
money into this. I had done some modeling and act
ing when I was younger where I sometimes had to
give money to the directors or photographers as a
sort of “contract fee” for discovering me.
But then “Gary” got into the details of the work.
If I was interested, I had to do an audition, which
included a photo shoot where I took off all my
clothes so he could see if the money was worth it.
Well, being the woman that I am, I can be pretty
self-conscious, especially around people who’ve
never seen me naked before.
Which lead me to my second option, which was
called the “Point-of-View.” This is where I could give
Salena
DeLaCruz
Say it loud
a guy oral sex where it just showed me and him, so
the person who gets the video can pretend it’s them.
Oh, and I would be paid $75 for getting my knees
dirty. One thing I noticed is that he made sure to
quit talking when people walked by, which gave me
the feeling he was ashamed of what he did.
But that wasn’t all — for pleasing myself in front
of the cameras, I’d get a paltry sum, as well. For
them to videotape my raw talents with a man, I’d
get a little more. And since many male fantasies are
woman-on-woman, that payment outweighed all
the rest. Remember, each session also includes the
still photographs.
And to add insult to injury, I would essentially
have to sign myself away. Any photographs or
movies done are the sole possession of “Gary,” and
he can then sell them to anyone he wants. Not
such a good idea if I ever want to go into politics.
I know many people would love to hear that I was
ready and willing that very moment, but the truth is,
the minute he told me all of this, I wanted to get up and
run away as far and as fast as possible. But I sat there
with the smile glued to my face because I knew I was
doing it as a service to our readers — to let them know
what’s up if they consider answering ads like this.
I might as well have put on some knee-high boots, a
tight mini-skirt and a tube top and stood on the comer
of Broadway and peddled my wares.
Ads like these prey on students who need quick
cash, and it’s sad that people are willing to do it. I,
on the other hand, left the meeting knowing I could
never go through with it. My self-respect and dignity
couldn’t take it. So, sorry “Gary,” but you won’t be
pimping this woman out to the highest bidder.
That said, before you drop your drawers, weigh
the pros and cons. Gould you swallow your own self
respect and dignity for $500? I couldn’t, so I guess
my minimum wage job will have to do.
Contact the editorial editor
atsalenadelacruz@dailyemerald.com.
Her views do not necessarily represent those
of the Emerald.
Americans can rethink
over-consuming habits
on ‘Buy Nothing Day’
Guest commentary
On Nov. 29, the day after Thanksgiv
ing, millions of North Americans will
flood out of their homes and into shop
ping malls and stores, summoned by
T.V. commercials, newspaper ads and
sales kicking off the holiday season. On
the day after the biggest annual eating
day on the continent, many University
students will partake in the biggest an
nual shopping day on the continent.
This year, however, ASUO asks you to
resist the urge to shop and participate in
a different holiday — Buy Nothing Day.
Established in 1989 by the Media Foun
dation of Vancouver, B.G., Buy Nothing
Day is a 24-hour shopping moratorium
meant to encourage us to challenge our
shop-til-you-drop, eat-your-heart-out
culture and not spend any money. This
year, more than a million people in
Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ger
many, the Netherlands, Norway, Israel,
Sweden and the United States will find
alternatives to the consumer frenzy and
consider the impact over-consumption
has on our planet.
Even if North America alone cele
brates Buy Nothing Day, we could take a
giant leap forward in improving the qual
ity of life on Earth. The average North
American consumes five times more
than a person in Mexico, 10 times more
than a person in China, and 30 times
more than a person in India. This has got
to change. Many of the purchases we
make undermine the spiritual reasons
for celebrating the holidays, were manu
factured in poor working conditions for
poor wages, or, especially cell phones, di
amonds and coffee, were made from re
sources that come out of brutal wars
fought overseas in which hundreds of
Africans, Southeast Asians and Middle
Easterners die each year. Moreover,
much of what we consume comes in ex
cessive packaging, which enlarges land
fills, pollutes drinking water, harms plant
and wildlife, and in most cases, is some
thing we simply do not need.
From Nov. 29 on, let’s try our best to
curb over-consumption. There are sev
eral ways to do this. We can start by
cutting up our credit cards (it’s not that
hard to do), only buying what we need,
repairing broken things instead of
throwing away and replacing them, us
ing reusable products instead of dispos
able ones, recycling, supporting local
and independent shops and challenging
our government to do more to address
the issue of consumption.
Also, when friends and family mem
bers ask us what we want for the holi
days, let’s consider asking for non-mate
rial gifts. Meanwhile, we should give
ourselves and our planet a break, and
buy nothing on Nov. 29.
Vivian Vassal! is a sophomore majoring
in journalism and is the ASUO environmental
coordinator.
Letters to the editor
Why cross picket lines?
After reading today’s article (“Gro
cery workers may strike,” ODE, Nov.
18) I would like to put forth some in
formation and a challenge. First, in
the very first sentence, the reporter
writes, “Grocery shopping may re
quire the crossing of picket lines this
holiday season.” Why?
Why not support the workers who
are trying to hold on to a living-wage
job with benefits? Wal-Mart’s slave-la
bor wages certainly won’t support
working families. Second, Safeway
cashier and University junior Grant
Leffler has it wrong. A strike is a last
effort by employees, not a first choice
to “show its power.”
As a union worker here at the Uni
versity, I challenge Leffler to find out
more about unions, because there are
three here representing employees of
the University. They are the people
who teach him (GTFF); help with his
financial aid, clean the rooms he stud
ies in, and provide him with course
materials (SEIU), to name just a few;
and print the materials he reads and
learns from (GCIU). SEIU will be bar
gaining soon, and we need the Univer
sity community’s support, especially
from students such as Mr. Leffler. So,
my challenge to the reader—support
all local area workers, because some
day they may support you. Isn’t that
what community is all about?
Cheri Smith
undergraduate coordinator
computer and information science
Change the world,
not just the station
With due respect to Ben Lacy’s
letter regarding KUGN, “turning
the dial” and ignoring the prob
lfijUS'jpl to chodsing hate and
a-violent future, which infringes
on everyone’s existence. There
are 1,200 radio stations; it’s a mo
nopoly of digital hate, providing
spewpoints, not viewpoints.
America and the world turned the
dial and the Holocaust evolved. We
turned the dial in Rwanda, Vietnam,
Korea and throughout the 20th cen
tury. We turn the dial for the women
in Afghanistan who die in childbirth
every twenty minutes because we
broke our promise to rebuild after
bombing them in search of a man
we never found. We turn the dial
every moment we allow violence to
be part of our way of life, and we
simply will not survive the century
if we continue to do so.
This is not about freedom of
speech. It’s about institutes of high
er learning — with their grand and
celebrated mission statements of
diversity — supporting extremism
and the spread of hatred in ex
change for money. In short, it’s
about perpetuating the kind of
hypocrisy we routinely study in
many of our classes.
Think ahead. Resist all concepts
that threaten future generations.
Choose an intelligent future.
Brian Bogart
first-year graduate student
' * * peace studies