This year's "Women of UW" calendar has been pulled from the shelves of the University Bookstore, apparently because of a protest by some students.
[Cover girl Jeatt] Walker, 20, said she had no doubts about signing up.
"It was classy enough that I was not embarrassed to show it to my family. It was the first big thing I've been in."
She said the calendar "displayed a really good fact that women can be smart and beautiful. The UW is full of really powerful women."
But other students weren't so taken.
"As I flipped through its pages, I became increasingly upset at its blatant objectification of UW students," some wrote in an open letter to UW President Mark Emmert.
"More importantly, I was horrified at the prominent display of the University of Washington's name and trademark logos spread across the pages of the calendar, providing the background for female students posing in provocative outfits against campus settings."
Here's what I think: Nobody, ever, in the history of mankind has ever honestly thought, said or written anything like that. That's not how somebody really feels, that's how somebody thinks they should feel.
That's somebody-or more likely, a committee of somebodies-who's read a few "women's" web sites and now thinks they're "empowered" and antisexist. So they're therefore deciding that only they can perceive sexism while their fellow women who posed aren't smart enough.
As Heinlein said, "A committee is a life form with six or more legs and no brain."
BTW, I've never bought a "Women of..." calendar and probably never will, so it's not about that.
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