by Steve Hunt
Daily O'Collegian
U-Wire
The Women's Studies Program presented a couple of films "Playing (Un)Fair" and "True-Hearted Vixens," addressing issues involving Title IX on Wednesday night. A panel discussion followed. Everyone in attendance had a fine time and when it was all over, left and went home.
Examining the history of Title IX and women's sports, the only things that are ever really discussed are the obvious ones. The most controversial thing ever brought up is the disgusting way women athletes are portrayed in the media. The thing people never talk about, in regards to Title IX, is socialism.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Let's face it, the problem of getting women their place in the world of athletics was not solved by some grandiose laissez-faire private sector magic. It was those "Damn Bolsheviks!" who made it happen.
Let's get back to the more acceptable (to discuss, that is) disturbance at hand. I remember this past Sept. 11, I looked at the Yahoo news photos, choosing the "sort by today's most e-mailed" option. All of the pictures of the day were relative to the memorial events, American flags flying, people in tears mourning and so on.
However, the No. 1 photo of the day was of Anna Kournikova bending over in a very revealing fashion. How pathetic.
Sadly, such sickness is everywhere in our culture.
A while back, "The Sports Animal" station in the cultured man's purgatory of Oklahoma City had this Audrey girl on the show, via a phone interview. She had just appeared in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, and this apparently was another opportunity for them to voice their opinions on women.
The lead for this piece had one of the station folk simulating an orgasm on the beach with one of the SI model "entities," a pseudo-clever "behind the scenes" mock piece on their part. I gave them a call after the interview, and on-air I basically said, "You know, women sure are great aren't they?"
The station guys gave some Beavis and Butthead chuckle "yah yah," while I went on, "They bring us into the world, and we basically just tell 'em, hey, go work at Night Trips, you stupid bitches!" They got mad and hung up because Night Trips (a strip joint) is one of their big sponsors and allows them to have their great FCC-approved show on air. Michael Powell likes entrepreneurial values embraced by this station, but he does not like cuss words!
If only Steve Largent, future governor of Oklahoma, had been at the panel discussion, it would have been something else. How would this voucher-loving, Reagan-worshiping former Seattle Seahawk supa-star tiptoe around this subject?
I can only imagine that he would use the phrase "added value" (as he did some 20-plus times on the OETA panel discussion last week) and use other Jesse Jacksonesque phrases to confuse the masses and not let them know that he probably thinks women's athletics are a cancer and need to be eliminated right now, following the lead of other politicians with strong private sector values.
Remember, this is all speculation on my part, so do not go around telling your friend Sally or George that he actually said this stuff. Say, all this talk reminds me: Do you think, "Conformity Killed the Columbine Kids" to the tune of "Video Killed the Radio Star" is too harsh and insensitive? I do, but then again I think Abercrombie & Fitch putting Bekah Jenkins in its catalogue nude at 14 years old is pretty harsh and insensitive, too.
Still, scores of dunces on campus buy their crap and parade around campus in the stuff. I saw this girl the other day wearing one of their shirts and I could not stop laughing. E-mail me if you think I should just write the damn song.
Better yet, come tell me at the women's soccer game Nov. 1 against the Sooners. Unfortunately, I will only be there briefly, as I have something going on at the other side of the campus, but I want to be there for some of the game.
OSU Cowgirl soccer is a surreal world of entertaining, skilled athleticism parlayed with a functioning community of fans of amazingly diverse cultures who all seem to get along great.
An obvious product of something worth looking into, which is society governed by how things should be rather than what things will make a lot of dough.
