Carly Simon I am not. But in this column, I must echo her sentiments from the 1973 No. 1 hit, “You’re So Vain.”
I have not received this much attention from sorority girls since I told a few a couple of years ago that I was in a fraternity (The year before I told them I was an athlete).
Apparently, my column appearing in last Wednesday’s Lantern has raised a few finely-plucked eyebrows.
As it goes for all talented columnists, this male received his fair share of fan mail.
Many of you wrote me e-mails in support of the column, and I thank you.
For those of you who do not know what was said in my last column, I will break it down for you like a break dancer in an Adidas wind suit would in 1983. I said, “Portly girls should not wear shirts that expose bare abdomen,” “Sorority girls should not wear fatigue shirts to advertise their sorority” and “People should not put cups of coffee on the American flag.”
Fair enough. So I will take the time to respond to a few of the many criticisms. All criticisms appeared on the Lantern Web site.
“Fraternities and sororities alike on this campus do a lot to give back to the community and are often the first to help out when there is a need.”
Nowhere in my column did I mention fraternities, and at the crux of my unpatriotic sorority comment was not the fact that it was a sorority. The argument was that people should not capitalize on times of crisis with advertisements.
But this comment made me aware of another common critique of the greek community — that they are very vain. Anytime someone says something remotely negative about them, greeks get very defensive and believe the critiquer has some sort of conspiracy to overthrow the system. Relax people, I got nothing against you.
Why not write about your views on the racial profiling that is going on or what is going on with the stock market and how people can help out there, but don’t waste my time writing about hot girls and guys, belly and tongue rings, bellies hanging out of t-shirts.
Question. How did I waste your time? Did I hold a gun to your head and make you read the column? Just wondering.
On racial profiling: It’s an overblown virtually non-existent phenomenom created by the liberal media.
On stock market: “Boiler Room” and “Wall Street” are two great movies, but not as great as “Glengary Glen Ross.”
I would highly encourage Dave O’Neil, as I would encourage all men, to consider taking a Women’s Studies course so that he might understand why his brand of rhetoric is unacceptable, even to other men.
What would a women’s studies class teach me? Would a feminist whacko lady like bell hooks, the distinguished professor of English at the City College of New York, spew her sexist and racist venom at me like what she wrote in “A Killing Rage?”
She writes, “I am writing this essay sitting beside an anonymous white male that I long to murder.”
Luckily, I’ve never had to take a women’s studies course. In the past year alone, I have learned everything there is to learn about women. I am just not afraid to admit it.
Dave O’Neil is The Lantern sports editor. There are no clouds in his coffee. Reach him at [email protected].
