Alumna responds to column
J. Colin Trisler’s latest column, “Get in touch with your masculine side,” may have been a call to arms for straight men, but it succeeded in also alienating and offending LGBT readers. As a member of the queer community, I ask that readers reconsider his argument.
The Post article Trisler mentions is what journalists call a “trend story.” It chronicles something we think is happening, but don’t have much hard scientific data to back up.
While sociologists are studying a possible increase in teen girls who identify as bisexual, I hope readers take a different message from the topic than “there aren’t enough real men to sweep these girls off their feet, so these girls are turning their attention to their only option – other girls.”
Consider that perhaps our current social climate allows some teens to feel more comfortable with their bisexuality. And, in a socially conservative region like the South, I doubt it happens as often as The Post implies.
Don’t think that all bisexual women and lesbians need is “a good man to set them straight.” That sort of patriarchal machismo undermines the personal, social and political strides lesbians and bisexual women have made and encourages oppression.
Rather than attempting to invalidate 40 years of social change, I encourage readers to educate themselves about the LGBT community and about acceptance.
Go to a Spectrum Alliance meeting every other Monday at 6 p.m. in the Union. Attend one of their panels. Talk to a member. The Women’s Center is even hosting a potluck breakfast Saturday, January 24th from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to discuss queer issues in Baton Rouge. Educate yourself over coffee and doughnuts.
Whatever you do, don’t perpetuate the repressive myth that lesbians and bisexual women identify the way they do because they can’t land a good boyfriend.
Rebekah S. Monson
Alumna
Class of 2003
Residents deserve reserved parking
I have a complaint. Where is student government or hall government when you need them? God forgive me for what I am about to ask but where are the parking police when you need them?
I am so tired of not being able to park where I live, and I am also tired of not being able to drive around the lot without there being the possibility of an accident.
I live in the East Campus Apartments and pay roughly $2,700 a semester. I think I pay way more than enough to earn a parking spot, but more often than not there are none.
I understand that there are none and so people want to park illegally, but when there are so many people parked illegally that it literally affects the flow of traffic and could potentially cause an accident things have gotten out of control.
I want to know why we aren’t issued our own parking spots? Why do I pay a lot of money, more than most of the on campus students, and I can’t park even remotely close to my apartment? Why doesn’t hall government make a move and force the issue? Why aren’t they making a big noise about parking for residence halls? Aren’t they elected for something, and not just handing out goodies at finals and midterms? I want some help…
Erin Elizabeth St. Pierre
Second Year Graduate Student
Counseling in Education
Masculinity not dead just yet
Mr. Trisler, I take issue with your latest article, “Get in touch with your masculine side.”
Metrosexuality is a myth. This so-called phenomenon is a commercial spin on Baudelaire’s dandy, whose obsession with the material is not “feminine,” as you thoughtlessly claim, but in fact a powerful cult of the self.
“Metrosexuality” removes the substance from this literary ideal and twists it into a ploy to buy products; it only exists as an invention of the advertising world.
Tell me, how many metrosexuals do you spot on a typical day? I see nothing but the same sea of shaggy hair and carelessly assembled outfits. For being part of a growing trend responsible for eroding masculinity, I see no evidence of it in reality.
You are correct in touching on the shortcomings of modern masculinity. However, you blame “female nagging” for this crisis, as if the “Lifetime” network is somehow capable of emasculating an entire nation of men. As if wanting men to practice hygiene and not be boorish is equivalent to a movement for nationwide penectomy.
As if men, powerless before the juggernaut of estrogen, have been flocking in droves to the spa, thus leading to the cataclysmic collapse of masculinity.
The truth is that masculinity has always been in crisis; it is a fragile, dynamic, and tricky mental state.
“Masculinity is risky and elusive,” says writer Camille Paglia. “A woman simply is, but a man must become.”
The trouble lies in that in today’s fragmented, commodified, nine-to-five society, there isn’t much for men to become. Masculinity isn’t dead, but what is masculine has changed. The masculine idea flourishes in the media. Girls freely swoon over the hyper-sculpted bodies of male celebrities; football, which enjoys frenzied popularity, is an attempt to capture the glory, athleticism, and manly heroism of the past.
Men were once defined as breadwinners, but then women began working. In the 80s men attempted to define themselves by fatherhood, but aside from coaching a little league team or two, not much was accomplished.
So we are left with the question: What is masculine today?
It remains risky and elusive. But we do know, however, that the current death of definable masculinity doesn’t lead to teen “girl-on-girl action.”
Gena Olson
Freshman
International Studies