Editorial
(Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
Univarsity of Nebraska-Uncoln
Aifly Edwards, Editor, 472-1766
Bob Nelson, Editorial Page Editor
Ryan Sleeves, Managing Editor
Eric Pfanner, Associate News Editor
Lisa Donovan, Associate News Editor
Brandon Loomis, Wire Editor
Jana Pedersen, Night News Editor
Gun decision risky
Colt owners reverse gun control spirit
Last March, the owners of Colt Industries took it
upon themselves to follow the spirit of gun control
policies by stopping production of the Colt AR15, a
U.S.-made assault rifle.
New owners of what is now called Colt’s Manufactur
ing Co., of Hartford, Conn., are considering reversing that
j decision to resume production of the rifle.
What a shame.
Colt Industries was not required by law to end produc
j tion. Their action occurred the day after the federal
| government imposed a temporary import ban on foreign
\ made weapons with similar features. Last July, the import
ban was made permanent on 43 styles of rifles.
And although they weren’t targeted in the law, Colt
l Industries never resumed production of the AR 15.
Their move was made in good faith, following growing
i public opinion that semiautomatic assault weapons were
I not necessary for civilian sales.
At the time of the decision, the AR15 was the most
popular U.S.-made semiautomatic rifle. The company
sacrificed profits for civil safety, something that is admi
rable and rare.
Ron Stilwell, executive vice-president and chief operat
\ ing officer of Colt’s Manufacturing Co., said the company
is seriously considering producing the rifle again, accord
ing to The Associated Press.
“We firmly believe it is a legitimate sporting system
} and in fact the only system that can be used for certain
national target matches,'* Stilwell said.
Fine. If the company could guarantee that the AR 15
would be used only for target matches, there would be no
problem. But assault rifles are used for more than national
matches.
They are used to kill.
Even if the number of semiautomatic weapons pur
j chased for that purpose were less than one percent of all
: sales, that is one percent too high. Any chance that one
j more semiautomatic weapon could fall into the wrong
i hands is a chance the Colt’s Manufacturing Co. should not
be willing to take.
No matter what the profit.
-- Amy Edwards
for tkt Daily Nebraskan
onipimi
-^I^Mreader i
STAND sold out by Bowman
1 beg to differ with Joe Bowman’s
letter in the Daily Nebraskan on March
21. Joe claims to not want to “risk my
integrity on an unsubstantiated ru
mor,’’ and says the Fiddelke-Lindau
deal is a fact. Joe goes on to say that
he will not reveal his source for fear
she would be ostracized. So it is quite
another matter to reveal this informa
tion to the media, without first check
ing both sides, in order to see to it that
others are, in fact, ostracized in print?
If indeed a deal took place, why
shouldn’t the source step forward
herself instead of using Joe as a
mouthpiece? I find it hard to imagine
underhanded political deals being
announced right in the middle of dinner
at a sorority.
Mr. Bowman has also gone down
the road of two wrongs making a
right, by striking a deal with the
VISION party for his endorsement,
without prior approval of the mem
bers of the STAND party, the party he
led until two weeks ago. I do not
believe in some of STAND’S causes,
and did not vote STAND in the elec
tions, but I feel that this small dedi
cated group really believed in what
they were trying to do, and had some
of the most original ideas in the
campaign, as well as a grass-roots
organization that was refreshing in its
understatedness. I feel they were sold
out for every reason that the party was
formed to combat. A mishandled at
tempt at power politics has greatly
diminished any chance STAND has
to have a say in student government at
UNL.
It probably never will be deter
mined if Joe Bowman brought down
the TODAY party with his press
conference, but by jumping into the
political game he has repeatedly said
he despises, he has defeated the ideals
he claimed to stand for in the first
place.
1 had friends running with all three
parties -- some won, but some lost -
but that’s life, and most of them took
it like mature adults, accepting defeat
graciously. The members of TODAY
did not deserve to be dumped on as
they were. Joe Bowman was defeated
in a fair election, and if he really
believed both TODAY and VISION
were evil, he should have retired
graciously from the political arena
and worked to get his ideas imple
mented, instead of forging a deal with
a group that he purportedly despised.
Joe said in his letter, “. . . when
you pick up a sword, you must use
•it! Very poetic, but one should not
use that sword capriciously, or to gain
a measure of revenge in a moment
when one is blinded by ambition.
Don Curtis
senior
biology
America’s Ideal Woman underweight
Media portrays distorted images of how thin bodies should be
The Ideal Woman - now there’s
a concept to think about.
In American society, the
Ideal Woman seems to be many things,
not the least of which is anorexic,
according to a recent study.
Last week, the Eastern Psycho
logical Association revealed its find
ings in a study of body dimensions
and weights of the 1979 to 1988 Miss
America contestants and Playboy
centerfolds.
The study showed that the tested
women’s average body weight was
13 to 19 percent below the normal
weightof American women. That low
body weight is one clinical symptom
of anorexia nervosa, according to one
of the study researchers quoted in a
Philadelphia Inquirer story.
These ultra-thin Miss America
contestants have been held up for
public inspection as the ultimate
American young women. And while
Playboy centerfolds aren’t exactly the
epitome of young women’s ideals,
the phrase “she has a Playboy body”
is familiar.
Is it a wonder, then, that one out of
every 100 American females between
ages 12 and 18 has an eating disorder
such as anorexia or bulimia?
It’s not too puzzling, as I realized
while watching a daytime talk show a
few weeks ago. The show’s guests
were anorexics and bulimics who
appeared on the show to, in their own
words, ‘‘help others.”
I didn’t plan to watch the show. I
thought I’d heard enough about those
problems.
But as I was flipping through the
channels with my free hand dipped in
a pounder package of M&Ms, a tiny
redhead caught my eye. Maybe it was
her ghastly appearance, maybe it was
the part of me that gawks even when
I don’t want to, but I couldn’t change
the channel -- even when the com
mercials came on.
And the commercials were very
interesting. Commercials for Cal*Ban
500 diet pills, for the Easy Glider
cross country ski simulator with a
man’s home video of his miraculous
thinning, and for Slim-Fast diet drink
“to help you lose weight.”
That irony was a slap in the face.
The more I watched, the more dis
BEjfl Jana
f Pedersen
gusted I became.
While the talk-show cameras were
on, women and men revealed the sad
tales of their own or their loved ones’
battles with eating disorders. But when
the cameras took a break, manufac
turers played right to the weaknesses
of those who most need help.
What’s a young woman supposed
to believe?
Yes, we’d like to think that the
anorexics/bulimics in television land
paid close attention to the talk show
and its preachy advice. But what would
an anorexic do during the commer
cials -- skip on over to the refrigerator
for a snack?
Even during a program aimed at
combatting the serious problem of
eating disorders, anyone with the
problem was smacked with conflict
ing messages.
We’d like to believe that advertis
ing doesn’t affect people. As an ad
vertising major, I’ve been told that
advertising can’t force anyone into
action but can be an influence.
And we’d like to believe that young
women know they don’t have to match
the body dimensions of Miss Amer
ica or Playboy centerfolds. But even
in our own speech we reinforce that
notion with Playboy-body analogies.
Eventually, the influences of ad
vertising, ultra-thin Miss Americas
and Playboy bodies pile up. A few
daytime talk shows or articles in teen
magazines can’t do much to sway the
load pressing on a young woman’s
insecurities.
What’s even more discouraging is
that the picture of the Ideal Woman as
painted in the media appeals espe
cially to those most susceptible to
eating disorders — those super-achiev
ers who want and seem to do it all.
Perfection isn’t an easy goal, but a
typical anorexic, and I’ve known some,
strives with every muscle to achieve
it. And as a society, we strive to
cultivate that impossible Ideal Woman.
That cultivation is shown specifi
cally in daytime TV and studies like
the one by the Eastern Psychological
Association. And it’s a big problem.
A secondary problem is the newer
observation that there has been a flood
of information presented about eat
ing disorders and a subsequent in
crease in the number of anorexics and
bulimics.
That attitude is only destructive.
There can never be too much infor
mation handed out to com bat the mass
of perfectionist influences young
women face. And any increase in the
number of anorexics and bulimics is
only in reported, recognized cases.
The problem always has been there.
If one piece of that flood of infor
mation reaches a young woman with
an eating disorder or someone who
cares about her, let the flood con
tinue.
Maybe a flood will be enough to
stand up to the other images Ameri
cans present. Maybe a flood will be
able to fight the problem.
And maybe then we’ll realize that
women don’t have to be ultra-thin to
be Ideal.
Pedersen is a sophomore advertising major
and a Daily Nebraskan night new s editor and
columnist.
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