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September 25, 2005
Pink is in
Quite accidentally, I stumbled onto the blog of a law professor at the University of Iowa, who has caused quite a ruckus because she thinks that the pink walls in the visiting locker room are sexist. Legendary Hawkeye coach Hayden Fry had the walls painted pink, ostensibly because of pink's calming influence. But that is like saying you read Playboy for the articles: everyone knows you are lying, and you know you are lying. You read Playboy because you want to look at naked women, and you paint a locker room pink because you want to belittle your opponents.
Now, I am not prepared to say it is homophobic and sexist, but it is an interesting question. The lady who wrote the commentary, however, had the misfortune to see her post picked up by some Hawkeye websites, who have sent a stream of angry posters to ridicule her.
Most of the comments are of the "your [sic] an idiot" variety, along with a healthy dose of requests for her to go back to vacuuming or for a blowjob. There's also quite a few people who question the point of even complaining about such a thing. To be fair, there are a few civil postings in the comment section, but probably 80% are invitations to go to hell.
Some representative examples:
Anonymous: You are a stupid bitch.
Lesbo Ass Kicker: Licking lawyer lesbos belong on the east coast where their licking lesbo pathology is accepted.
Leave the University of Iowa and our football team alone. Your opinions regarding the Hawks are not material, Butch.
Anonymous: Attention Whore! I suggest you take your silly little routine of judicial masturbation to some other venue. You are an embarassment to our public university.
The problem to me, with the internet, is that most of the time the conversation invariable turns into a flurry of insults, racist/bigoted remarks, and general rudeness. Look no further than the "discussions" for news items on the Yahoo front page. It seems to me most discussions on internet message boards amount to nothing more than calling somebody's idea idiotic, then the person being called idiotic, and then another person stepping in and being called an idiot by whoever he happens to disagree with.
It is, I suppose, the price we pay for being able to broadcast our view to the world. I am certain that if I ever write something that gets widespread play, half the world is going to crucify me, and the other half is going to make fun of me. I can deal. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.
I'm happy to say that hasn't happened yet. If it does, I can deal.
A major complaint that a lot of people get is "why do you even care about this?" The short answer is, because we do. Nobody cares about half the stuff I care about, and nobody cares about half the stuff YOU care about. By not care, I don't mean I think it's stupid, it's just not something that concerns me. But even though you don't care, I don't care that you don't care. I care. And this is my website. I can say whatever I want, unless it meets certain legal criteria for false information that could result in me being sued, but that is not important.
I can say it. You can read it. The lady in Iowa can say whatever she wants, because it's her web site. If you're really that passionate about what color Iowa's locker room is, you can write about it, too.
Posted by oz115 at September 25, 2005 08:25 PM