Editorial
(Daily
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
Eric Pfanner, Editor, 472-1766
Victoria Ayottc, Managing Editor
Darcie Wiegert, Associate News Editor
Diane Brayton, Associate News Editor
Jana Pedersen, Wire Editor
Emily Rosenbaum, Copy Desk Chief
Lisa Donovan, Editorial Page Editor
Locker room sexism
Women reporters pay the price
Locker room behavior ought to be punted.
But if you talked to some of the New England Patriots’
players and the team owner, Victor Kiam, you might get
the impression that women reporters, not sexist behavior,
should be punted right out of the locker room.
Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olson has alleged that she was
sexually harassed in the Patriots locker room by five players
during a post-game interview last month.
In a later interview with the Herald, Kiam said, “I can’t
disagree with the players’ actions. Your paper is asking for
trouble by sending a female reporter to cover the team.”
Critics of Olson and the Herald agree with this mentality,
contending she should have expected harassment in a male
locker room.
But Olson was just doing her job. She shouldn’t expect to be
treated like she was in some triple-X peep show on New York
City’s 42nd and Broadway streets.
Walking around naked in a dressing room is quite natural.
Apparently, so are lewd comments and gestures from naked
team members.
But that doesn’t make them right.
The “boys will be boys’’ attitude that Kiam and some of his
players subscribe to allows the locker room to be a breeding
ground for the perpetuation of sexist attitudes.
Kiam reportedly said Olson’s attitude was that of “a classic
bitch.”
While denying this statement, he said the incident was a
‘ * flyspeck in the ocean. ’ ’
He later apologized for making the statement and thus tried
to shrug off the incident.
But not before women’s organizations could call for a
boycott of Kiam-owned Remington products.
With Christmas quickly approaching, this certainly wouldn’t
be a flyspeck in Kiam’s wallet.
He attempted to save face and image by publishing full-page
apologies in some of the major East Coast newspapers. That
won’t repair the damage.
Neither will player Zeke Mowatt’s reported $2,0(X) fine for
his alleged involvement in the incident.
Unless attitudes and behavior change, the only ones paying
the price will continue to be women sports reporters.
-Lisa Donovan
for the Daily Nebraskan
Onjtimrt
-^KMrfadkk |—
Small group with big money
wants campus playground
There’s no room left at the inn (at
the Taco Inn).
Here are some thoughts about the
demise of Taco Inn, daVinci’s, The
Hole Works, Kinko’s and the Lied
Park that will replace them.
It appears that a small number of
people with a large amount of money
and influence would like to turn the
campus into their own personal play
ground. These non-students are suc
cessfully annihilating most conven
ient and necessary student services in
exchange for a mere two to four hours
of leisure each week.
A few observations:
• Park? What about the park al
ready on the side of the Lied Center
for Performing Arts or Sheldon’s or
the library greens. How about using
the lobby or the balcony. How many
places do they need?
• How often will people use this
park? People in formal attire won’t be
strolling around in the scorching
summers or the bitter winters. That
doesn’t leave many months of use.
(But, it will sure look great! In
deedydo!)
• Why not turn one of the parking
lots into a park. Let the patrons look
for parking like everyone else?
• Will there be an admission fee to
the park or will there just be a fence
around it?
• What’s the next project? Turn
the dorms into hotels for patrons who
drank loo much?
• S250.000 initial cost of park —
somebody’s paying themselves a big
check for inventing this project.
• Students who work at the Lied
Center get paid less than non-stu
dents. Shouldn’t this be the other way
around?
• Why is the Lied Center even on
campus? Very few University of
Nebraska-Lincoln groups or individu
als actually perform there. As con
trasted to Memorial Stadium where
student athletes, cheerleaders and
marching band members ail partici
pate and use the facility. Kimball
Hall was sufficient in my opinion to
house our cultural events. (Plus it
doesn’t lose money.)
• Taco Inn is a tradition. Many a
great thought was inspired over a
bean burnto. Along with The Hole
Works, these places offer a sense of
campus community and a place to
gather.
In retrospect, 1 see this as one more
nail in the coffin of a floundering
downtown. As I was walking by the
Lied Center, I saw a woman who
looked disturbingly like Marie Anto
inette standing on the balcony. “Let
them eat Huevos Rancheros” was all
she said.
John Carlim
senior
music
Christianity doesn’t equal bigotry
Asking people to give up their beliefs is unfair and oppressive
A few weeks ago I was in The
Coffee House with my par
ents and a friend discussing
religion. We were not being morose
or somber. It was a humorous conver
sation. After overhearing bits and
pieces of the conversation a woman
came over to us and said, “I often
find that those who talk of belief the
most believe the least.”
That made me think about religion
some more. It is one of the largest
influences on the world’s events.
Everything wc sec on the news is
influenced by religion, but very few
people recognize it.
The director of the Contemporary
Arts Center in Cincinnati is on trial
for displaying the so-called porno
graphic photography of Robert Map
plethorpe. Sen. Jesse Helms of North
Carolina is unfortunately the only
Christian speaker on the issue. He
claims that Mapplethorpe’s photog
raphy is obscene. But he doesn’t speak
for all Christians, who have diverse
opinions on such issues.
The biggest domestic issue today,
abortion, can be looked at in the same
way.
The two sides of the issue arc
portrayed as being the “liberal com
munity” and the “religious right
wing.” But there is no such division.
There are non-Christians, such as Nat
Hentoff of the Village Voice, who arc
not pro-choice. Many Christians are
pro-choice.
Throughout my life I have been
attacked and ridiculed because of my
brand of belief. Along with the at
tacks from Christians telling me that
I am not “Christian enough,” I have
had to deal with attacks from non
Christians telling me that 1 am too
Christian. I have been told that Chris
tianity is a faith of hate, exclusion and
anger. Many assume that because I
am a Christian 1 do not stand up for
civil rights. To them 1 am automati
cally sexist, heterosexist and racist. 1
have been called a bigot. 1 am told
that 1 am not open-minded, not thought
ful, not loving, because of my faith. I,
according to many, am the embodi
ment of oppression.
This is bigoted in itself. Many people
in the “liberal community” — sup
porters of civil rights, supporters of
abortion rights, supporters of peace --
assume that Christians cannot sup
Eric
Aspengren
port the same things.
Just as it is unfair to demand that
Jews give up their faith or that homo
sexuals give up their loves, it is unfair
and oppressive to ask me to reject my
faith, my beliefs and in the end, my
own father. My faith is a part of me. I
draw strength from Christianity for
the fight of liberation. 1 pray for the
liberation of all people. I do not pray
for the conversion of others. I do not
pray for the condemnation of others.
This certainly is not Christian.
Being a Christian docs not mean
being a Jimmy Swaggart or a Jesse
Helms. It means being a Christian, a
believer in Christ. It means believing
in humanity’s capabilities to love. It
means believing in humanity’s abili
ties to achieve itself.
In certain “liberal” communities
the word Christian has taken on simi
lar connotations that the words Jew,
black or gay have in certain “conser
vative” communities. Some people
even seem to be proud of their anti
Christian sentiments.
That frightens me because it is a
reaction to stereotypes, not to people.
It reminds me of Steppin Fetchit, a
black actor in the early days of mov
ies who played stereotyped roles.
Certainly Fetchit was not an oppres
sive figure in himself. He did, how
ever, perpetuate the myths of biack
people that pervade this culture.
There is a stronger parallel be
tween the perceived societal roles of
men and Christians.
Men are taught that they must be
sexist, heterosexist, violent and es- ?
sentially unfeeling. That is not what it
means to be a man. Men are not
inherently oppressive people. It is a
mistake to think the same of Chris
tians.
Certainly some men do take ad
vantage of their positions in this soci
ety, as do certain Christians. Chris
tians like Jesse Helms, in relation to
such things as abortion, take advan
tage of their position as Christians to
oppress people, just as Hitler took
advantage of his own warped version
of Christianity, his whiteness and his :
heterosexuality in Nazi Germany. Not |
all Christians arc like this.
ror mose oi you wno aie ucvouu
to the cause of liberation, remember
your history. Remember those great
people devoted to the cause who were
Christian. Martin Luther King Jr., an
important figure in the Civil Rights
Movement, was a Baptist preacher.
The writer James Baldwin, a black
homosexual man, spoke for many
oppressed peoples and was a Chris
tian. The most outspoken for the poor %
and disenfranchised in Central and
South America are priests and nuns.
And remember the many lesser-known
but important Christians who have
fought the fight throughout history
Christians have not always been in
the position of power they hold in
contemporary U.S. society. Christians I
were once an oppressed people -
hated, crucified and thrown to the
lions for their beliefs. Christians must
never make the same mistake. Never
forget your past.
This brings home the incident in
The Coffee House. The woman tell
into the same trap that many do, as
suming Christianity means bigotry
Aspengren is a freshman philosophy and
aesthetics major and a Daily Nebraskan col
umnist.
editorial - — I
Signed staff editorials represent
the official policy of the Fall 1990
Daily Nebraskan. Policy is set by the
Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. Its
members arc: Eric Planner, editor;
Lisa Donovan, editorial page editor;
Victoria Ayottc, managing editor;
Diane Bray ton, associate news editor;
Darcic Wicgert, associate news edi
tor; Emily Rosenbaum, copy desk
chief; Jana Pedersen, wire editor.
Editorials do not necessarily re
flect the views of the university, its
employees, the students or the NU
Board of Regents.
Editorial columns represent the
opinion of the author. The Daily Nc
braskan’s publishers arc ihc regents,*
who established the UNL Publica-I
lions Board to supervise the daily Prol
duction of the paper.
According to policy set by the re-i
gents, responsibility for the editorial*
content of the newspaper lies solely in*
the hands of its students.
