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After the news broke last week that Nebraska
Wesleyan University had passed an alcohol-o,
campus policy, one UNL student was overheard to
say, "Nebraska will probably legalize grass before
the regents wise up on alcohol."
While we are not that optimistic about future
marijuana legislation, we agree the NU Board of
Regents has a history of being unusually stiff
necked in opposing alcohol.
The Wesleyan action has reopened an issue that,
while never quite dead, has been dormant since the
legislature shot down a statewide alcohol-on-campus
bill in 1974.
Now ASUN and the Council on Student Life
(CSL) are making noises about launching fresh
campaigns for students' rights to drink (Daily
Nebraskan, Oct. 1).
The Daily Nebraskan historically has taken an
editorial stance favoring approval of alcohol on
campus. That is still our position, and we will
support wholeheartedly any efforts ASUN, CSL or
other groups may make in this direction.
The Wesleyan Board of Governors set an ad
mirable example for the regents by at once
affirming students' rights as adults and the board's
own opposition to alcohol in residence halls.
This should show the regents, if nothing else
does, that the issue is not and has never been
alcohol per se. The issue is whether students may
consider themselves adults or children in the eyes
of the regents.
Until NU's alcohol policy is changes, we are still
in the playpen.
Rebecca Brits
Long hard climb
Mute, Barbie Doll characters plague TV
There are reasons why I don't watch television movies.
For one thing, some movies you couldn't drag me to end up
on TV in the 8 pjn. prime time slot. And TV movies are
cut, not just bad words and sexy scenes but every 15 to
20 minutes for commercials. I usually find a good book by
the time the second set of commercials comes on.
The worst thing about TV movies is their abundance of
simpering heroines, struck dumb in admiration of their
male costars. I assume they are struck dumb because they
have no lines. I like to reserve the right to choose my own
propaganda.
Last weekend I saw parts of three movies on TV. One
was about an airplane crash-I've seen it at least twice and
do not remember the title. I also watched Hie Man Who
Loved Cat Dancing, with Burt Reynolds and Sarah Miles,
and Viva Villa, supposedly the story of Pancho Villa, the
Mexican revolutionary. .
Each film had a rape scene and featured an almst mute
heroine. Besides the plane crash, emergency appendectomy,
and baby's birth, the first film also included an
"accidental" death. The victim was a lovely, but forgettable
girl who was pursued by a no-good rapacious young man
and fell over a cliff to her death.
Basic components: innocent, powerless young woman
(she has nc lines) and defiant, deceptive, powerful young
man (he has stolen a gun). I'm not sure which characteriza
tion is worse. Is it better to be powerful but depraved, or
powerless and victimized?
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After watching The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, I can
see why this film found its way to TV so quickly. Sarah
Miles plays a woman held hostage by a group of thieves.
She later leaves the group, with Burt Reynolds, and falls
hopelessly in love with him.
She serves him dinner and sits back apprehensively wait
ing for him to grunt with approval. She tells him she wants
to have his baby. This woman has no foresight.
They are 100 miles into the wilderness. . They are
fugitives. There is no doctor and it's the middle of winter.
Burt replies, "Sure, take your clothes off."
Instead of replying, "Forget it, Burt. I just noticed you
have the soul of a tuna," she looks slightly hurt and says,
"Gee, you aren't very romantic."
This scene alone should be enough to send a person
screaming from the television set, but tl.eie's more.
One of Burt's chums, another thief, blunders into camp
one day, threatens Sarah with a knife and rapes her. After
Burt kills him, (Sarah can't bring herself to pull the trigger)
he asks her why she didn't call for help. "He would have
killed yea," she replies. For U.i lino site should win the
Barbie Doll award.
The movie tells us women make good pets: loyal, loving,
and obedient. However, they seldom act on their own and
are always acted upon. Their minds are limited to single
minded devotion to their less than loving masters.
Men are brutal, evil, and murderous. They have no sense
of fair play and have no feelings except of lust and revenge.
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The third film, Viva VtUs, is a weird study in crowd
psychology. The Mexican people love Pancho Villa, a
bandit who drives the Mexican army crazy. Strangely
enough, the bandits kill as many Mexicans as the soldiers
do and with the same amount of glee.
The women in this film do a terrific job of mime-they
say nothing during the entire film.
The rape scene comes close to the beginning. Mexican
soldiers come into a house and order the women to get
out. The young woman tries to scratch and pull the hair of
the Mexican captain and in retaliation, he rapes her.
The message seems to be that women had better follow
men's orders or they will be forced Into humiliation.
These films are not meant to portray reality, but they
are an insidious way of projecting values upon the public
mind. They reinforce the male stereotype, the viri!
courageous man, protector or oppressor of women. These
men find their best outlets In action and speech. They have
no deep feelings.
Women are always the victims. The films seem to agree
with Professor Hijlns la My Fr Lsdy that "Th?ir
(women's) heads are full of cotton, hay and rags." They do
not speak. They feel deep emotions-tenderness, love,
sadness and hate-but their efforts at expression are
blocked by men.
The effect of such films cannot be puged. Recognition
of the propagandic nature of these films would be a start,
but films showing alternate values are needed and there
is a dearth of them.
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