Debate plays politics with students
There is a gubernatorial debate between Republican candidate Meg Whitman and Democratic candidate Jerry Brown taking place on campus in the Satellite Student Union on Oct. 2. Unfortunately, the event is closed to the public, and much to my disappointment, students cannot attend. ASI has continued to ask the debate committee for more tickets and has received no response.
The Satellite Student Union is our facility””it’s on our campus and our tuition fees fund it. If an event like this is being held there, students should absolutely be able to attend. It’s a shame the university would allow an event that many students are interested in and would benefit from attending, to use our facilities, and then prohibit students from attending. Both Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown’s campaigns were given an equal number of tickets and they are only distributing them to their supporters. They’re playing politics with our facilities, and it’s not acceptable.
Jerry Brown didn’t intend on accepting this debate invitation, but after so much media pressure to accept, he accepted. The best thing we can do now is use that same tactic to get more tickets for students. If the debate committee and the campaigns get enough media pressure to make more tickets available to students, they most likely will. I encourage all of you to write letters to the editor of both The Collegian and The Fresno Bee to make the media and general public more aware of this issue.
Sean Kiernan,
Political Science
Fashion doesn’t liberate, it imprisons
In a situation as extreme as the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, a request for lipstick is not necessarily “liberation,” but symbolic of “liberation.” It is possible this gesture was a psychological beckoning toward a period in the woman’s life prior to her dehumanization and forced homogeneity. However, lipstick did not liberate her; British troops liberated her.
As for our current societal condition, fashion is more imprisoning than “liberating.” Women are the spectacle. We are obliged to cater to our exterior selves to please our spectators. Our choice in fashion may not be a manifestation or expression of our “true selves,” but rather a mirage of how we wish others to perceive us; the “fashion” in which we prefer others to perceive us may not be based on our individual personality, but based on what persona exterior observers claim we should assume. As quoted in an essay by Anwyn Crawford concerning the ban on hijabs in French schools, Alain Badiou writes, “… a girl must show what she’s got to sell… It is vital to hint at undressing at every instant.” By Jove, a women simply must sell herself to the “other” in the precise package they prefer! Of course, such an intricate concept is only one component of an endless array of logic, logic that may or may not be as negative as the aforementioned. You just cannot get away with a statement like “fashion is liberating for women” without provoking questions concerning the statement’s validity.
Kelly Caplan,
Social Work