Sexism in the City
Rivkah Rogawski
Issue date: 10/3/08 Section: Opinions
I like presents, and I like people who give me presents. Stern must know this, because, during my short time on campus, I have received many goodies, such as t-shirts, folders, cups, and even photo holders. All of these gifts are of course meant to engender warm and fuzzy feelings of gratitude amongst the student population. Therefore, imagine my surprise when I received a gift that insulted my sensibilities and intelligence as a Jewish woman. This gift was a t-shirt from the Stern Honors Program bearing the offensive slogan, "Brilliance shouldn't look this good."
My initial objection to this phrase was the obvious implication it holds that women should be evaluated based on their looks (a subjective evaluation anyway) and that an intelligent woman is assumed to be unattractive. This propagates the old "blonde bimbo" notion, which is anti-women as well as anti-Torah. However, upon further investigation, I discovered that this slogan was devised by a student in the honors program as a joke and was chosen by her peers to be written on the back of the honors program t-shirts. As such, it is not the official slogan of the Stern Honors Program but rather meant by its women as a cute, facetious joke.
This realization prompted me to more complex feelings and thoughts. Besides for the fact that using this slogan is probably a bad way for the honors program to represent itself to its incoming students, I believe that this slogan highlights a crucial divide in attitude between third wave feminists and other pro-women individuals (I dislike using the word feminist because of its connotation). Third wave feminists have adopted the derogatory terms and behaviors associated with women as a form of empowerment. However, just because a woman insults herself doesn't make it okay. Rather, such behavior demonstrates that she has lost her own self-respect. This behavior also runs contrary to the modesty that the Jewish concept of tzniut advocates. Only by discrediting and eradicating these male chauvinist modes of thought through self-empowered and pro-women (whatever they may choose to do with their lives) attitudes can we truly achieve real "women's lib." Playing off derogatory concepts and using them in jest is harmful to the ultimate self esteem of women everywhere.
The issue at hand has special import in light of the recent nomination of Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican candidate for vice president. Ms. Palin's intelligence and competence as a vice presidential candidate have been challenged due to the fact that she won 3rd place in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant when she was younger. Ms. Palin's attractiveness and her governmental abilities have absolutely no bearing on each other; these accusations merely echo old attitudes. In order to completely remove these prejudices from the general public, women must first stop perpetuating them. I am fairly certain that most women of Stern College do not believe that beauty is a characteristic by which they should be judged. However, if we want to achieve real fairness for men and women, we need to stop referring to this idea, even as a joke. Perhaps a new slogan could be: "Brilliant? Attractive? WHO CARES?"
My initial objection to this phrase was the obvious implication it holds that women should be evaluated based on their looks (a subjective evaluation anyway) and that an intelligent woman is assumed to be unattractive. This propagates the old "blonde bimbo" notion, which is anti-women as well as anti-Torah. However, upon further investigation, I discovered that this slogan was devised by a student in the honors program as a joke and was chosen by her peers to be written on the back of the honors program t-shirts. As such, it is not the official slogan of the Stern Honors Program but rather meant by its women as a cute, facetious joke.
This realization prompted me to more complex feelings and thoughts. Besides for the fact that using this slogan is probably a bad way for the honors program to represent itself to its incoming students, I believe that this slogan highlights a crucial divide in attitude between third wave feminists and other pro-women individuals (I dislike using the word feminist because of its connotation). Third wave feminists have adopted the derogatory terms and behaviors associated with women as a form of empowerment. However, just because a woman insults herself doesn't make it okay. Rather, such behavior demonstrates that she has lost her own self-respect. This behavior also runs contrary to the modesty that the Jewish concept of tzniut advocates. Only by discrediting and eradicating these male chauvinist modes of thought through self-empowered and pro-women (whatever they may choose to do with their lives) attitudes can we truly achieve real "women's lib." Playing off derogatory concepts and using them in jest is harmful to the ultimate self esteem of women everywhere.
The issue at hand has special import in light of the recent nomination of Governor Sarah Palin as the Republican candidate for vice president. Ms. Palin's intelligence and competence as a vice presidential candidate have been challenged due to the fact that she won 3rd place in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant when she was younger. Ms. Palin's attractiveness and her governmental abilities have absolutely no bearing on each other; these accusations merely echo old attitudes. In order to completely remove these prejudices from the general public, women must first stop perpetuating them. I am fairly certain that most women of Stern College do not believe that beauty is a characteristic by which they should be judged. However, if we want to achieve real fairness for men and women, we need to stop referring to this idea, even as a joke. Perhaps a new slogan could be: "Brilliant? Attractive? WHO CARES?"
Viewing Comments 1 - 8 of 9
esther
posted 10/03/08 @ 2:14 PM EST
The slogan was a submission to a contest for the honors students to pick a slogan for the program. The slogan was written by an honors student and voted for by honors students. (Continued…)
anon
posted 10/05/08 @ 9:33 PM EST
This is yet another example of not examining something completely and jumping to the mistaken conclusion that it is "Sexist." The slogan, as mentioned in previous comment, was composed by an Honors student at Stern, and voted for by other honors students. (Continued…)
Honors Student
posted 10/07/08 @ 10:37 PM EST
Anon-
It would appear that you are not in the honors program, so please refrain from asserting sweeping generalizations about something you did not experience. (Continued…)
Dina
posted 10/30/08 @ 6:05 PM EST
When I first saw the headline for this article I thought it must refer to the gift Stern sends it's newly married alumni- an apron! Granted it says 'Shef' and 'Shefet' in Hebrew and perhaps YU sends it to the men as well but everyone I told about the gift was absolutely appalled. (Continued…)
Shani
posted 10/30/08 @ 7:55 PM EST
This is the first I'm hearing about the aprons... I think it's nice that they send anything at all. How many colleges send their married alumni wedding presents? Anyway, the fact that is does say, as you say, "Shef" and "Shefet" shows that they DID think about it, and that it is NOT meant for only the woman of the house to wear. (Continued…)
Dina
posted 11/03/08 @ 1:12 PM EST
I have actually been the one defending the gift to all who heard about it, saying they MUST send it to the men as well. I am absolutely able to take it with a grain of salt but it just does not look good, sorry. (Continued…)
Shani
posted 11/05/08 @ 2:05 AM EST
By bringing it up out of the blue in your comment for this article you were inherently attacking it, so don't go saying you are its defender. In any event, even if you personally have thick skin, it would seem like all of your friends are still pretty sensitive, since "everyone" you told it to was "appalled. (Continued…)
A male perspective
posted 12/08/08 @ 1:20 AM EST
I do not mean to sound like a typical male "chauvinist," because I most definitely do not portray myself as one, and any woman/girl at stern (or any other university for that matter) would agree with my previous statement. (Continued…)
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