University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

Ads Incur Anti-Sexist Wrath

What is your policy toward the
"use" of women in advertisements
on the pages of the Cavalier Daily?
To be specific, last week you ran
two ads for Ed Michtom's which
were extremely disgusting. One
invited all the "Broad Jumpers" out
there in Wahooland to hurry down
to buy some suede track shoes?
(question mark mine). The second
showed a male hand on a pair of
female legs with the caption
challenging boldly "Move up" along-with
some copy about Michtom's
trou.

These ads should never have
been written or printed; they are
exploitive of women, treating them
as sex objects, assuming that they
exist for the glorification and
pleasure of men and rigidly defining
their place in the society. I feel, and
many of my friends similarly feel
that it is particularly inconsistent
for the CD to support such
progressive measures as co-ed
dorms, etc and still put such "crap
and filth" in the paper.

No excuses may be made for the
perverted history of the University,
as far as relations of the sexes are
concerned, and the chauvinistic
traditions clung to dearly by many
Virginia students. I would suggest
1) that women are human beings.
not pawns, 2) the CD evaluate
its conception of and policy toward
women, and 3) the University
community buy their clothes
someplace other than Ed Michtom's.

We don't need the regressive
influence of such inflated male
superegos. You may hesitate, but
please consider this: We must let
others know if we don't like the
"world" they live in so that they
don't make it the "world" we have
to live in.

Champion Turtles

Let me state for the record that
Virginia was represented last May at
the International Turtle race held at
American University. A last minute
entry of a 6-inch box turtle,
"Hoo", claimed by its owner to be
the "fastest turtle in the east"
represented U.Va. In its first race
which pitted "Hoo" with a turtle
from Maryland, Notre Dame, and
the home town favorite from
American, "Hoo" held a
considerable lead until he got to the
end of the ramp whereupon he did
an "about face" allowing the
American turtle to win.

In another race, "Hoo" was
entered (illegally) under the
sponsorship of Western Michigan
University and not only won that
race, but he went on to win the
championship of the event. May
"Wahoo-wah" win this year under
Virginia's banner!