Key to women's advancement found in getting angry

Exhibits C and D: Some recent ads placed on the HUB billboards. One shows a woman parading around in her undergarments, declaring her "independence" from Mr. Wrong. Another depicts a topless female, her arms crossed in front of her chest, with a colorful map projected on her body.

Verdict: We've got a long way to go.

The mixed messages sent to women in our society are frightening. Take, for instance, the above example. Here we are at a university, the place where independence, enlightenment and rationality are supposed to reign. We preach multiculturalism and praise pluralism or claim to. During the month of March we plan events featuring women and post pictures of Susan B. Anthony, yet we blindly pass by, blatantly degrading advertisements in one of the most heavily traveled buildings on campus.

What should we do? Get angry. Get very angry. Every person who walks by those ads should be angry. Not only do they objectify women as mere body parts, and cater to the presumption that the average consumer must be lured to buy by means of sexual tactics, but they are presented by our University, for most of the student population to see every day. I, for one, do not see this as equality.

As my professor talked of domestic servitude, mental cruelty, denied human rights and persistent depression, I became enraged, not only at hearing the facts, but at noticing the apathy around me. Even the women in the classroom sat doodling, ignoring the fact that it is only because of the efforts of these women that we are able to sit in a college class today. People have a tendency to forget the past and ignore the present.

Reminders of past oppression lurk in the world today. For instance, the widely used phrase "rule of thumb" supposedly came from an 18th century court ruling that said a man could legally beat his wife with a switch as long as it wasn't wider than his thumb.

Women still adopt their husbands' last names, even though the custom came from the fact that women used to be considered property. A woman went from her father's possession to her husband's because she could not hold a job, own land or vote. We say that this tradition is harmless. But is the legacy that it represents harmless?

Just last weekend, President Clinton was forced to threaten to veto a bill that would provide emergency aid to survivors of natural disasters, because Republicans tacked an anti-abortion clause to it.

The good old USA still boasts one of the highest rape rates in the world, a pitiful notion in light of the fact that we consider ourselves a "civilized" nation. All of these examples are subtle, but destructive.

Whereas, I agree that Women's History Month should be a time of celebration, (the WNBA, the increase of women holding important political offices, Roe vs. Wade, etc.) it also should be a time to reflect upon still existing problems.

One clever protester, armed with a permanent marker, sketched the outline of ribs and cheekbones, on the scantily-clad woman in the HUB underwear ad, and added a conversation balloon reading: "I'm hungry." It's nice to see that someone else agrees with the impropriety of the image.

In addition to special events and stories of the suffrage movement, let's reject degrading images for the remainder of Women's History Month. Let's start noticing harmful stereotypes, and acknowledging the cruelty of the past. Let's get angry, and stay angry. Let's not accept offensive pictures of women in our student union, on our televisions, in our minds.

Let's celebrate women with praise and respect.