OSU

The Daily O'Collegian
Publication Date: September 4, 2002

Playboy, sororities: A big case of much ado about nothing

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C. Brooks Kurtz
Columnist

Finally, something easy to write about. The presses have stopped, the presses have stopped! OSU sororities and Baylor University administration are finally on the same page. According to Tuesday’s paper, both find girls posing in Playboy unacceptable. In other news, the Pope is indeed Polish.

Local sororities - probably most sororities everywhere - think that a girl interviewing with (much less posing for) Playboy paints their house in a negative light. The larger - and more obvious - point, of course, would be that one pose in Playboy would likely put nary a dent into the year-after-year drunken canoodling at Joe's and on the Strip, fun, festive reputations which have been established on a yearly basis by armies of chain-smoking, beer-chugging and Rumple-shooting divas who happen to be some of the most fun people in the world (and, rest assured, more than a few have no problems saying cheese).

The problem is that the more radical of women have ruined it for the rest. The Ms. Movement of so long ago (and today, I suppose) made women to feel ashamed of being proud of their bodies, of looking nice - of course in a real sexual manner, for any radical will tell you the human body looks nice in all its forms even though the rest of us know that's a big croc of crap - and horror - of horrors! - of doing anything, and I mean anything that might objectify Ophelia-hood. Like posing in Playboy.

Personally, I would say that having a member of the sisterhood in Playboy would be an honor.

Aside from the "look at the hotty in our house" benefit, there is also the idea that a group of girls can get together and respect the decision of another (anyone can agree, its find leverage in disagreement that makes us tolerant), that stereotypes (she's such a whore for doing that) can be displaced, and that the human body (even in its airbrushed state) can be respected and yes, celebrated. And, of course, regardless of what anyone will say, Playboy ceased to be pornography ages ago.

To call Playboy pornography or sexually explicit is like calling Southern Oklahoma Vo-Tech Institute an Ivy League school. It's not and it's not.

I've seen more sex and T-n-A on the bastion of feminism "Sex and the City" then I have in Playboy.

I've subscribed for years and, while I do look at the pictures, if I want to look at sexually explicit material I can either turn my computer on or go to the library and people-watch - boo-yah!

Women today get so many conflicting views of what is and is not acceptable behavior, but thankfully men removed themselves from this dilemma ages ago. We need not objectify women, for women do such a better job at it.

For each Playboy, there are thousands of rags such as Glamour, Cosmo and Vogue - edited by women, mind you - which offer emaciated, six-foot vixens in $5,000 outfits. Playboy offers girls of varying heights, weights, sizes, and hues. At the very least, it is equal-opportunity in its objectification.

Unfortunately, sorority women have to toe the line, whether they agree or not (and I have a feeling most sorority women could care less whether or not a member poses, though none could say that for fear of being branded a whore-harborer).

National chapters have national standards, and those standards usually include a rider about not doing anything like making the house look bad.

Bad, however, is quite subjective. One could argue that such clubs are by no means required and if a girl wants to join, she should be ready to face the consequences of such behavior.

Maybe by including a stint in Playboy as grounds for reprimand, sororities are undermining their goals, values and caliber of women. For example, is posing in Playboy as "bad" as, say, having a one-night stand? I don't think so. Tell me some girls in every sorority - and boys too, make no mistake - do not do this and I will sell you some ocean front property in Arizona. Capiche?

Finally, stereotyping women in Playboy is about as helpful as stereotyping women in sororities. In suma, we could see it as a modern, entertaining case of much ado about nothing.

Ciao.