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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 11, 2005)
Oregon Daily Emerald Monday, April 11, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 JEN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR JARED PABEN AYISHA YAHYA NEWS EDITORS MEGJIANN CUNIFF PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS MORIAH BALINCIT AMANDA BOLSINGER ADAM CHERRY EMILY SMITH EVA SYI WESTER SHELDON TRAVER NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON JONES SPORTS EDITOR JON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURC. PULSE EDITOR AMY LICHTY SENIOR PULSE REPORTER JOSHUA LINTEREUR PULSE REPORTER CAI BALDWIN PULSE CARTOONIST AILEE SLATER COMMENTARY EDITOR GABEBRADLEY ANNEMARIE KNF.PPER CHUCK SLOTHOWER JENNIFER MCBRIDE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN WIMER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER KATE HORTON ZANERITT PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHERS BRET FU RTWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST DUSTIN REESE SENIOR DESIGNER ELLIOTI ASBURY WENDY K1EFFER AMANDA LEE JONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS SHADRA BEESLEY JEANNIE EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BLACKFIELD PAULTHOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDITORS GREG BILSLAND AMBER LINDROS NEWS COPY EDITORS JENNY GERW1CK PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR WEBMASTER (541)346-5511 JUDY RIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KAT HY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER LAUNA de giusti RECEPTIONIST JERED NAGEL PATRICK SCHMERBER HOLLY STEIN JANA SWANSON ROB WEGNER CAROLYN ZIMMERMAN DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ HERON CAL1SCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE H1RONAKA MAEGAN KASER-LEE kill I I KAUFTHEIL MIA LE1DELMEYER SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES CLASSIFIED (541)3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KORALYNN BASHAM ANDO KATY GAGNON KER1 SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541)3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA nAW PRODUCTION COORDINATOR IEN CRAMLET KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAUT SABRINA GOWETTE IONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pu6 lished daily Monday through Fri day during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore. The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union The Emerald is pnvate property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law ■ In my opinion Starving for appearances For decades, America has been falling wholeheartedly into a culture that promotes eating disorders. Televi sion programs and the media in gener al create a symbolic order wherein women are important, successful and visible only when subscribing to a cer tain physical appearance. And while is sues with image are certainly a prob lem for those of all shapes and sizes, ages, and genders, the problem is se verely and obviously polarized toward affecting young women. As of late, though, we haven’t been hearing much about eating disorders. There seems to be a silent pact be tween media and industry that agrees to shy away from details of bulimic ac tresses or national death counts from anorexia and instead focuses on the ideal of a health-conscious society. America is now all about eating health ier, getting more exercise and living a better life. As laudable as these goals are, it is upsetting to see that a nation wide discussion of eating disorders has gotten lost among low carb potato chips and pricey abdominal machines. It is dangerous indeed to discuss eat ing disorders when our consumer indus try is now so heavily based upon selling products to promote diet and exercise, the fear being that if people concentrate upon ending eating disorders, they might by default become overly critical of weight loss programs and supple ments. America’s weight problem is hardly a problem for the surge of busi nesses with products based upon con sumers having bad body image. We can tell ourselves that we are try ing to work out and eat right in order to be healthy, but the truth remains that most of this nation is trying to be healthy in order to look good. A host of new diets and health plans only mask the problem of both disease and health, convincing the average American that A1LEE SLATER FURTHER FROM PERFECTION eating disorders have been replaced with healthy living choices. To clearly understand that this new diet mania is coming from an obsession with physical appearance rather than bodily well being, consider this fact: Heart disease is the number one killer of women in America, yet there is little campaigning to end heart problems and certainly none that is anywhere near the scale of our current nationwide promo tion to end weight problems. We may see an occasional public service mes sage directed toward women’s need to fight heart disease, but I guarantee that not a single commercial break or maga zine issue can be found without at least one call to women to “get healthy” by improving their body. Not to overlook the problem of eat ing disorders for men. Males too find themselves caught up in a slew of pro motions for a good body. However, men have not been subjected to the same systemic assault of intense body worship as women. The message, primarily to women, is that keeping one’s body healthy and happy is only important when that body will be viewed by someone else. Heart disease is kind of important, but an ex tra roll around the stomach is actually life threatening. Women are learning to be healthy not for themselves, but for others. In a heterosexist society, this means that our national goal of beating obesity is becoming a sad repeat of women’s bodies being exploited for the viewing purposes of men. Advertisers and producers in Ameri ca can claim they are working against obesity in order to create a healthier nation, but in reality they are preying upon a nation of insecure women in order to sell more products. And for every company or campaign truly act ing to promote healthier choices, there are ten businesses exploiting a new na tional ideal of healthiness as just an other mechanism to convince young women that physical appearance should be valued above all else. It cannot be denied that our nation does have a relatively high rate of dan gerous obesity. However, much of this problem is based on national rather than individual choices. In a society built upon getting to the top through a go-go go attitude, eating choices tend to be quick and refined. Likewise, with a longer work week and less vacation time than other countries, it is no wonder that Americans are less likely to take an hour a day to exercise, or even an extra 10 minutes to walk rather than drive to the grocery store. A healthy nation and an eating dis order-free nation need not be mutually exclusive. In order to accomplish the goal of true health, our society must avert its priorities away from physical appearance as reigning value and pro mote healthiness while also recogniz ing the harms and prevalence of eating disorders. Almost any woman will tell you that dieting doesn’t stick because concentrating on food and weight only breeds resentment toward the body. As long as the women of our nation be lieve they must be skinny to feel attrac tive, the idea of being healthy to feel good will continue to get lost in the cy cle of exploitation. aileeslater@dailyemerald. com OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office, EMU Suite 300. Electronic submissions are preferred Letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should include phone number and address for verification The Emerald reserves the nght to edit for space, gammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald ■ Editorial Grievances necessary, but could disillusion In the world of elections, there is surely no phrase that elicits as many shudders of disgust as the infamous “recount.” The 2000 Florida fiasco exemplifies, in a very muddled manner, the two most important facets of a democratic nation: the right of every citizen to have a voice and the right of every citizen to speak up if they believe some of those voices are being stifled. Unfortunately, those two noble values of ten clash and result in a messy obstruction of justice. The situation that erupted late last week concerning the ASUO executive primary election is one example of such a clash. On Friday, the Emerald broke a story concerning three grievances filed against the executive campaign of Ashley Rees and Jael Anker-Lagos (“Executive campaign ef forts elicit grievances,” ODE, April 8). Af ter a clarification of rules, the ASUO Elec tion Board dismissed two of the grievances against the ticket. The last grievance, con cerning a student affiliated with the cam paign who violated election rules, resulted in a sanctioned ban on the Rees-Anker-La gos ticket campaigning until Monday. The trouble did not end there. With just hours remaining in the pri mary election, ASUO Student Senator Kevin Day filed a grievance with the ASUO Constitution Court on Friday, alleging that the Election Board had shown preference toward the Rees-Anker-Lagos campaign and lacked impartiality. Day’s request for an injunction was honored, and ASUO pri mary elections grounded to a dead stop. Primary results could not be released until the court was able to dismiss Day’s griev ance Sunday afternoon, freeing up the Election Board to rule on two other griev ances it had received, which were holding up the process as well. Sound like a headache? We think so too. These situations require a delicate touch. We believe it is of the utmost im portance that students be allowed to ex press their voices by filing grievances, just as Day did. Partisan politics have no place in the Election Board, but the grievance brought up more questions than answers. What would have happened had the court ruled in favor of Day’s grievance? Would it have necessitated an extension of the primary election, or perhaps an entire ly new election? A re-vote could have been yet another stepping stone in convincing an already disinterested student body that their vote doesn’t count. It is also worthwhile to consider the timeliness of Day’s filing. Why wait until the very end of primaries to file the complaint, especially after the Election Board ruled against the Rees-Anker-Lagos campaign? The important goal at this point is to move on to the general election before a frustrated student body becomes fed up with the process. The Emerald calls for a swift and clean general election, and we ask the candidates to stifle their ridiculous pleas of ignorance regarding the very sim ple rules that govern the election process and to refrain from sketchy campaigning tactics. We also advise the ASUO to make moves to tighten the election rules with the hope of preventing these bureaucratic and judicial traffic jams in the future.
