College newspaper can't stomach the word COM(MAN)D on a T-shirt

Submitted by anthony on Mon, 2009-03-30 21:03

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Hanszen College Men's Resource Center (MRC) has been selling "MAN" shirts both to raise campus awareness and to raise funds for its Hu(man)ity Campaign to help "young men in the Fifth Ward Enrichment program become responsible adults and productive members of the community." I thought it a perfect example of the kind of socially conscious civic engagement projects Rice students should engage in - that is, until I saw a shirt with the slogan "COM(MAN)D" with the word "man" displayed in a larger font and bracketed within the whole word.

Understandably, the MRC was probably trying to make a statement by using funny or enticing slogans as part of its campaign. Most of the slogans are indeed so, such as "WO(MAN)," "(MAN)GO" and "BRO(MAN)CE," but this particular slogan, "COM(MAN)D," is particularly offensive and potentially misleading.

"Command" is a word that connotes power, control, force and dominance. This meaning is obvious in every dictionary definition of the word. One cannot command without being obeyed. "Command" and "obey" form a basic binary opposition, just like "male" and "female." If a man "commands," then a man cannot "obey," which leaves anything that is not man to "obey."'

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Comments

If this is the extent of her complaint, then I can only think she complains for complaining's sake. But look at her closing observation:

"However, that organization stops being beneficial when it empowers one sex at the expense of the other and reinforces certain gender stereotypes."

Indeed! And so I wonder when she will write an article pointing out such organizations as N.O.W.

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Submitted by Matt on Mon, 2009-03-30 21:11

Is there any wonder why today's young men are opting out of college? My god, anything that even refers to masculinity is demonized.

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Submitted by anthony on Mon, 2009-03-30 21:53

My Comment:
Wow, Jennifer, you should count yourself lucky...

if the most sexist and offensive thing you can find on your campus is the word command, with the MAN in brackets.

Who cares about the blatant lies that are always being told about men on campuses, right? Who cares that the 1 in 4 chance of rape is really 38.8/100 000? Who cares about advertisements that use the sexual abuse of males for comedy to sell products? Who cares about blatantly sexists 'ladies' nights' where gender discrimination rules?

Off of campuses, men are forced out of their children's lives thanks to their ex-wifes disobeying court orders which the court does nothing to uphold. Other men are forced into prison after being falsely accussed of crimes they didn't committ without sufficient evidence.

I'm just saying that if that's the most misogynistic thing you can find, you're lucky. There is much more evidence of misandry on college campuses. And BTW, the people who made the shirt can't help it if the word man is in the word command. They don't mean anything sexist by it.

They just want to show underprivileged boys that they can be in command someday. Geez, you say that insecure men made this shirt, but it seems you are the one who's truly insecure. Cry to us when the shirt actually shows clear malice towards the female gender; then we might give a damn.

Evan AKA X-TRNL
Real Men Don't Take Abuse!

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Submitted by xtrnl on Tue, 2009-03-31 15:59