Erin
HANSBROUGH
Alive
and well
Don’t put feminism in
‘has been’ category yet
ERIN HANSBROUGH is a senior
news-editorial, women*s studies and
Spanish major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist.
Feminism is dead.
At least, Time magazine thinks so.
On June 29 of this year, Time magazine offi
cially declared the end of the modem American .
feminist movement as we know it Again. The
response from feminist readers? Stop. We’ve
heard this one before.
It seems that once every few years, at least one
popular news magazine decides to dedicate a cou
ple of pages to the investigation of what Feminists
(one group, capital “F’> are doing these days.
This should be simple enough, since all women
who identify as feminist have the same agenda
and work together on everything, right? Right?
Oh, if only they knew how long it takes to get a
women’s studies department to agree on where to
go to lunch.
When the researchers can’t come up with a
comprehensive answer to The Feminist Question,
suddenly the movement is declared dead. Time
and time again, world without end. (Except for in
1994, when Details magazine made the shocking
discovery that some feminists actually like sex,
and “Do-Me Feminism” was bom; then the move
ment was alive and kicking!)
The Time article, titled “Feminism: It’s All
About ME!” declares that real feminist movement
has died down because young women today are
more concerned with their bodies and their love
lives than with making social change. Their
proof? The popularity of female characters such
as Ally McBeal and die Spice Girls. Excuse me,
since when has television or commercial rock ‘n’
roll offered us revolutionary role models? Even
during the ‘70s, when modem feminism was con
sidered very much alive, the average young
woman probably wanted to be more like Farrah
Fawcett ,than Angela Davis or Gloria Steinem.
The truth is, social change and feminist action
are happening all over the place, whether it’s in
our classrooms, where bell hooks is being
assigned along with Herman Melville; at our jobs,
where sexual harassment is finally being recog
nized as a problem; or in the Nebraska
Legislature, where abortion and gay rights are
among die most pressing issues. Feminism dead?
Well, don’t bury anybody yet; it looks to me like
we’re still moving.
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Haney^s
VIEW
^ ^ reAKSrftm Mc^..r
Jim
VANCE
Have it your way
Service industry should look at how it does business
JIM VANCE is a senior
physical and health edu
cation major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist.
Customer service.
To most college students, that
means a summer job of kissing
butts and listening to people com
plain at us for things that are not
our fault. But there’s a little more
to the phrase than that.
I’ll agree the jobs advertising
customer service normally suck,
mainly because you’re just trying
to sell people crap they don’t need
nor want. And it’s usually over the
phone.
Yet the biggest element we are
all missing is the latter term, “ser
vice”. This word implies a certain
respect which must be shown to
those whom we attempt to serve.
Without that respect, there soon
may be no former term.
I have recently experienced
poor customer service. I’m not
going to withhold names, it was at
Perkins and Arby’s restaurants.
(Although these events did not
occur in Lincoln.) Their service
was so poor that I left both estab
lishments fuming with anger, and a
multi-year boycott plan. (For the
record I have just finished my four
year boycott of Wendy’s.) The sad
dest thing is that both restaurants
could easily" have made me a happy
customer given the circumstances,
had they simply apologized and
offered me free meals. I would
have gone from a disgusted cus
tomer to a continued loyalist, had
they made a very upsetting situa
tion a pleasant one, and I could
expect the same in the future. But
their reaction was to be simply
obtuse to the situation they caused,
even though I had been calm,
respectful and courteous in
explaining how upset I was.
Think if a hospital or doctor’s
office did this. They would be sued
for malpractice. Even worse, they
do not have the opportunity the
food industry and others have to
make an unhappy customer happy,
as the unhappy customer more
times than not is dead.
i he tact that it wouia be so
easy to alleviate a poor situation
but yet a service company would
not attempt to, only further goes to
show the lack of respect for those
who pay their bills, we customers.
What if the electric or gas com
panies did this? Imagine calling to
tell them you are out of power and
they simply said use a candle or
light a fire, and all they would do
is offer a candle or some fire
wood. This is pretty much the reac
tion I have gotten. Where does this
attitude of disrespect originate?
The fact our phone, electric and
gas companies are obvious monop
olies makes it scary to think what
it would be like if they treated us
as such. Unless you’re Amish,
you’d be continually subject to
their crap.
Something worse to think about
is many reports say a lack of jobs
for college graduates have lead to
them flooding the customer service
markets, namely the food industry.
If this is the type of service and
respect coming from college grad
uates, how does this speak of our
educational system? Do we need
Respect 101 to be included with
our prerequisites?
If you are involved in the cus
tomer service industry, which
includes nearly everyone, I hope
you will think about the value of
respect, not only in a business
sense, but in a social and personal
sense as well.
T f__A A _ J _ 1__ f
u yuu cue ueaieu puuujr uy a
service company, don’t hold back.
Let them know you’re unhappy. If
we don’t, we’re not doing anything
to bring respect to ourselves and
our society. How can I expect
respect, if I don’t have enough for
myself to tell what treatment I
demand? What respect level will I
have for others if I have none for
myself?
If I am continually run down,
and begin to run down other peo
ple, what greater good do I bring
society?
So am I saying if the guy
behind the counter doesn’t at the
very least give me a smile and
“Thank you” with my burger and
fries, the world is a lesser place?
Damn right I am.