I didn't just see what I think I saw -- did I?

As I stood on the bleachers of the student section at the Youngstown State game this past weekend, a blow-up doll of a naked woman was passed over my head.

I tugged on my boyfriend's shirt, pointing in disbelief as it sailed through the stands.

Meanwhile, the guys in front of me were laughing at it and giving each other high fives.

With large breasts and holes in its private parts, the doll was knocked around like a beach ball.

As if that weren't bad enough, various students grabbed the doll when it came their way, held it up high and touched it inappropriately for everyone to see.

One fan put the doll between his legs and pretended to have sex with it, while another aggressively stuck his fingers in its crotch. Later, someone stuck a pompom in the doll's crotch and continued to pass it through the crowd.

Watching in horror, I thought I might throw up.

But maybe the most disturbing part for me was that masses of student fans -- both guys and girls -- erupted into laughter and cheered on this sexually demeaning behavior.

I came to Beaver Stadium to enjoy a football game, but instead a degrading representation of a woman was thrown in my face -- literally.

Although my boyfriend agreed that it was wrong, he told me that until I said something he was pretty unfazed by sight of the naked doll.

"I've seen it at games before," he said. "This kind of thing is everywhere."

That's just the problem. When degrading and objectifying images of women are "everywhere," it becomes embedded in our culture.

Consequently, men and women often overlook situations that belittle women and fail to identify them as wrong.As a female fan, I felt repulsed and alienated by this blatant sexual objectification of women. I tried and tried, but I couldn't bring my attention back to the game. Why are people laughing? Why isn't anyone stopping it? Why is this OK?

All I wanted to do was grab hold of the doll, stick a pin in it and leave.

The doll never came back to where I was sitting, but by the third quarter I had had it and left the game.

For the first time in four years, I felt betrayed by my fellow students.

I shuddered to think that parents, alumni and children were at that game.

I doubt I was the only one.

On the walk back to my apartment, I was fuming. I told my boyfriend that I couldn't understand why this sexist display was brought to a football game. If men want to play with blow-up dolls, they can do it in private. They don't have to make it a public spectacle. I told him that what bothered me most was the fact that so many students accepted and even encouraged the behavior.

"Do something about it," my boyfriend said.

That's when I decided to write this column. We all need to ask ourselves some important questions. How do Penn State students treat women, and is this acceptable? Through our behavior, what image of Penn State are we projecting?

You say we're the best student section in the country?

It's time to start acting like it.