Women Still Strive for a Media Voice
Lisa San Pascual
Issue date: 11/15/05 Section: Opinions
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Columnist Maureen Dowd put America's pantyhose in a bunch when her article "What's a Modern Girl to Do?" appeared in the Oct. 30 New York Times Magazine. Condensed from her book Are Men Really Necessary?, the article criticizes today's generation of young women for taking women's lib to a perverse new level. According to Dowd, we have morphed into a strange hybrid band of 1950s homemakers and overindulged sex kittens (think the smoldering soccer moms of Desperate Housewives, whose liberation comes in the form of seducing lawn boys and professional football players). One of Dowd's prize lines is, "It took only a few decades to create a brazen new world where the highest ideal is to acknowledge your inner slut. I am woman; see me strip." The article prompted a media-wide reexamination not only of gender dynamics, but of the role of female columnists in today's media.
Incidentally, the buzz created by Dowd's article coincides with a wrangling over the pages of the Tripod regarding its representations of campus sexual dynamics. A few weeks ago, I wrote an article examining the Carrie Bradshaw phenomenon that has found its home in the Features section; we also received a Letter to the Editor denouncing the "superficial, smutty rag" spewed by our faux cultural experts. [As the letter was a personal attack, the Tripod decided not to print it.]
There's been so much railing against homophobia and racism on these Opinions pages, but writers have stayed noticeably quiet on the subject of sex and gender. Meanwhile, casual chronicles of weekend exploits flood the Tripod, written almost exclusively by women bemoaning their single status and the futility of the "hard-to-get" game. Clearly, there's a huge gap between what we on campus deem are important, socially relevant issues, and what we do for kicks when class lets out on Thursday afternoons.
The anonymous writer of the letter cuts to the core of the issue when s/he writes: "We have an excellent faculty, caring staff, and exceptionally bright, dedicated students. It's a shame that the student newspaper does not reflect that." In one way, s/he is absolutely right: Trinity has a reputation for students who work hard and are intellectually capable. But here's the irony that we know all too well: scholastic aptitude is not always followed by emotional maturity. The girl staggering about with overdone eyeliner and cocktail in hand may have had stratostrophic SAT scores. The guy roaring Will Ferrellisms on repeat may be a genius on German dialectical philosophy. Trinity students are remarkably adept at keeping their intellectual engines to a dull hum. Our much-talked-about "intellectual atmosphere" is not nonexistent; it's just confined to the classroom and those dark, dark enclaves at the library.
Incidentally, the buzz created by Dowd's article coincides with a wrangling over the pages of the Tripod regarding its representations of campus sexual dynamics. A few weeks ago, I wrote an article examining the Carrie Bradshaw phenomenon that has found its home in the Features section; we also received a Letter to the Editor denouncing the "superficial, smutty rag" spewed by our faux cultural experts. [As the letter was a personal attack, the Tripod decided not to print it.]
There's been so much railing against homophobia and racism on these Opinions pages, but writers have stayed noticeably quiet on the subject of sex and gender. Meanwhile, casual chronicles of weekend exploits flood the Tripod, written almost exclusively by women bemoaning their single status and the futility of the "hard-to-get" game. Clearly, there's a huge gap between what we on campus deem are important, socially relevant issues, and what we do for kicks when class lets out on Thursday afternoons.
The anonymous writer of the letter cuts to the core of the issue when s/he writes: "We have an excellent faculty, caring staff, and exceptionally bright, dedicated students. It's a shame that the student newspaper does not reflect that." In one way, s/he is absolutely right: Trinity has a reputation for students who work hard and are intellectually capable. But here's the irony that we know all too well: scholastic aptitude is not always followed by emotional maturity. The girl staggering about with overdone eyeliner and cocktail in hand may have had stratostrophic SAT scores. The guy roaring Will Ferrellisms on repeat may be a genius on German dialectical philosophy. Trinity students are remarkably adept at keeping their intellectual engines to a dull hum. Our much-talked-about "intellectual atmosphere" is not nonexistent; it's just confined to the classroom and those dark, dark enclaves at the library.
