The Spartan Edge claims to be the "edgy and progressive" media outlet at Michigan State. I find it totally ironic that such an "edgy" news source would stoop so far below that self-described status to call themselves, "the end of pussy journalism."
Any progressive, or edgy person who didn't happen to miss the great social movements of the past 100 or so years would probably tell you that "pussy" is an offensive word for a woman's vagina. I do not appreciate an online magazine describing how cool it is by using a gender specific, negative term to describe itself. Apparently, it's pretty absurd to feel this way, because the moderator called me an "ardent feminist" for pointing this out. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about free speech and non-sensorship, but pussy is an offensive word to describe something that is bad.
The word pussy not only objectifies the most uniquely feminine organ, but it implies that the vagina is something substandard- to the penis obviously-or anything "masculine" for that matter.
In this nation masculinity is associated with boldness, fearlessness and strength. I happen to know plenty of females who are bold, fearless and strong- and guess what? They all manage to maintain some level of feminity. Such attributes are not masuculine traits at all. It is ignorant and sexist to assume that women are weak, timid, and sumbmissive *ahem* pussies. I doubt Spartan Edge would ever call them selves "the end of dick/tool/prick/cock journalism".
There has already been a movement to disuade the use of the word "gay" to describe something as stupid or dumb- so why is pussy OK? There are Facebook groups with hundreds of members called " People Agaisnt Using the Term 'Gay' as Hate", or something like that. It is wrong to use sexuality, racially, or gender based insults, especially by media outlets that want any sort of acknowledgement of legitimacy.
To the moderator and writers at Spartan Edge, if you are all such spectaculor journalists, I'm sure you could dig a much more creative, and much less offensive word out of the thesaurus to describe yourselves.
Until then you are all a bunch of misongynist, milquetoast journalists.
2 comments:
Dear Katelyn,
I can see that you are a lover of the thesaurus, a detractor of brevity and an ardent social activist, and while your argument is not unjustified, allow me to pose a question.
If our slogan had been “The start of pussy journalism,” would you still ask us to change it or question our motives? Regardless of the absurdity of the question, my gut tells me no. Why? Because the SpartanEdge slogan did not refer to female genitalia. My dictionary provides multiple definitions for the term pussy: 1) a cat, 2) a furry flower growing on a tree (as in the catkin of a pussy willow tree), 3) genitalia, 4) weakness. Unless SpartanEdge was a publication written by or for female genitalia, the slogan above wouldn’t make any sense.
I have not been involved with SpartanEdge very long, but my understanding of the slogan was always that it referred to other news organizations, the State News in particular. In other words, the growth of online news organizations and internet communities is fostering a new era of sharing information. If someone feels that they are being ill served by the existing news institutions, they can easily find another source to draw from. This is the essence of SpartanEdge—to allow students to tell the stories that other news organizations aren’t willing and able to tell, in a unique, interesting and unrestricted way.
I can say with nearly the utmost of certainty that no member of SpartanEdge has anything against female genitalia. On the contrary, I am a lover and supporter of women (and their anatomical parts). So while your statement is eloquent and obviously forceful enough to inspire the slogan’s removal, there’s still one problem. You completely missed the point. With that said, it doesn’t necessarily pain me to see the slogan disappear. I felt only that I should counter your argument, since apparently no one else was so inspired.
I'll now share with you a quote from my journalism ethics book (“The Elements of Journalism” by Kovach and Rosenstiel), paraphrasing U of M First Amendment scholar Lee Bollinger: “Out of a diversity of voices the people are more likely to know the truth and thus be able to self-govern.” If this is the end of “the end of pussy journalism,” then let this also be a time to reflect on the nature of some of our newspapers, television and radio stations and other news media, and discard those that do not effectively serve democracy, justice and progress.
The ‘End of Pussy Journalism’? Is writing and reporting effeminate? Perhaps they mean the end of soft journalism, to which I will point out their April 17 issue which was titled “StyleEdge,” and devoted nearly the entire site to fashion trends. Nice - how significant.
As Hunter S. Thompson once wrote, “I’m a journalist – a hired geek of sorts.” SpartanEdge reflects the Americanized attitude of “cool” and that success equals cool. Cool people don’t get things done. They stand aside and harass the ‘uncool’ and tell them what to wear.
I applaud SpartanEdge for their ambition and some important works they’ve put up in the past. And that’s about it.
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