Semesters Gone Wild!
I am taking two seminars and they're kicking my ass. One is a "Humor in Use" class -- which sounds great, until you have to read all this theory on joking and humor by people like Freud. And then it just sucks the fun out of humor.
The snow and bitter chill is gross. I am still riding my bike around, which is fine since they plow and salt the roads. The only painful thing is when I have to get up at 7 to teach my 9 o'clocl class in the mornings, when the sun isn't up yet and it's still 0-degrees outside. Then my hands freeze and it feels like frostbite. My friend's roommate got minor frostbite on her hands, coming to campus; she was diagnosed at the health center -- so I guess frostbite is a possible reality here.
Trashy news in the B-ton lately: A baby was found in a dumpster. And Girls Gone Wild! was going to throw a party here. They canceled it. I found this article below.
'Girls Gone Wild' event canceled
Campus groups ask city for help in stopping controversial entertainers
By Mallory Simon | Indiana Daily Student | Thursday, January 25, 2007
Several campus groups have successfully forced the cancellation of the shirt-raising "Girls Gone Wild" event that was scheduled to take place Friday night at Jake's Nightclub.
More than 125 members of the Bloomington community, including students, faculty members, administrators and campus groups, signed a petition Wednesday calling for the event to be canceled, according to e-mails obtained by the Indiana Daily Student.
Jake's owner Dave Kubiak and representatives with "Girls Gone Wild" refused interviews with the IDS.
Kubiak, owner and manager of Bluebird, also cancelled a show in September 2006 featuring a Jamaican artist with anti-gay song lyrics.
Bloomington Safe & Civil City Director Beverly Calender-Anderson said administrators within the city government including Mayor Mark Kruzan were notified about the outrage regarding the event and a possible protest, which spurred a meeting Wednesday afternoon with the nightclub's owners.
"We spoke with the owners of Jake's and expressed our concerns that this was not appropriate entertainment for this community," Anderson said.
Anderson said at the conclusion of the meeting that the owners of Jake's, 419 N. Walnut St., were weighing their options about whether to cancel the event.
Wednesday night Kubiak responded to criticism by canceling the event but declined to speak with the press about the situation.
"We are sorry if the idea offended anyone, that was not the idea," Kubiak wrote in an e-mail sent to various campus groups. "We respect our town and would like to put this behind us."
According to an e-mail from Kruzan, Jake's will now be hosting a "college-age music evening" instead of the "Girls Gone Wild" event.
Uproar about the event began with the creation of a Facebook group last week by Bloomington resident and former IU student Liz Ladd, whose group's description said: "Porn is a business and its workers should be contracted while they're sober and paid with money, not T-shirts, hats and underwear."
Less than one week later, there were more than 160 members of the global group. Ladd said her concern was sparked by a recent Los Angeles Times article that described several allegations of rape against "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis.
"I thought I would help make people aware," she said. "It was important to still respect people's right to make choices, but to also help them make an informed one."
Carol McCord, assistant dean for the Office for Women's Affairs, said the tactics used by the workers of "Girls Gone Wild" were of the most concern.
"It's not that we are against women having the right to choose what they want to do with their bodies," McCord said. "If a woman chooses to go into the bus or about making pornography that's different to me than her being coerced when drunk and someone getting rich off of it. As an advocate for women, I want to make sure they have the right information about these people and their tactics."
Francis and his company have found themselves in legal trouble regarding several allegations against them, including using girls who were under the age 18 in their videos.
In September 2006, Mantra Films Inc., the company that produces "Girls Gone Wild," pled guilty to charges that it failed to document the ages of girls in Florida and were fined $2.1 million according to court records. On Monday, Francis himself was sentenced to two years' probation and 200 hours of community service for violation of federal laws which seek to protect the exploitation of minors.
The debate about the event at Jake's is not the first of its kind to take place in Bloomington. In 2002, "Girls Gone Wild" made a stop at Vertigo Nightclub, which no longer exists. The same year, film crews from Shane's World filmed a porn movie in Teter Quad, for "Shane's World Vol. 32: Campus Invasion." The incident was donned the "dorm porn" and garnered national press attention, according to previous IDS articles. In 2004, a freshman created the Web site www.teenkeira.com, which is now closed, where she posted semi-nude photos of herself from her Briscoe-Shoemaker dorm room. The University eventually decided not to take any judicial action against her. In 2005, Playboy made its way to the Hoosier state for its "Girls of the Big Ten Party Schools" issue.
While pornographic materials and IU may have a history together, Erick Janssen, Associate Scientist at the Kinsey Institute, said the reason why students engage in this kind of behavior merits more research. Janssen spoke of several issues which arise out of the "Girls Gone Wild" debate, including whether the outrage would be the same if it were males and not females engaging in the behavior, whether the prevalence of sexual material on the internet is a factor, and issues about regret, morals and consent.
"It'd be silly to assume there was just one reason," he said. "When it comes to the reason, it can be anything from someone wanting to be liked by the people around them, the disinhibition due to alcohol, for others it may be attention, or, maybe they truly really like that T-shirt."
With the event canceled, the debate about what would have happened, what could have happened and why girls did what they did, will likely be laid to rest. Still, Ladd and several of the campus groups have lauded the quick movement of the campus community and the aid of the city in helping to reach an agreement.
"I'm thrilled, it's a great example of grass-roots work," she said. "I truly didn't think it was possible to cancel the event. But, I think it's great that enough people cared enough to put something together to not only raise awareness but to say we don't want this in our community."
While this cancelation is a socio-political boost to our modest college town, in some ways I feel at a loss. Though sexist and creepy, a local Girls Gone Wild! party could have afforded me the priceless opportunity of opening the local paper and seeing the blurred pictures of any number of my students lifting their shirts in a drunken torpor. Then the next day, when they come to class, I could just ask, "Where are your Mardi Gras beads?"
The snow and bitter chill is gross. I am still riding my bike around, which is fine since they plow and salt the roads. The only painful thing is when I have to get up at 7 to teach my 9 o'clocl class in the mornings, when the sun isn't up yet and it's still 0-degrees outside. Then my hands freeze and it feels like frostbite. My friend's roommate got minor frostbite on her hands, coming to campus; she was diagnosed at the health center -- so I guess frostbite is a possible reality here.
Trashy news in the B-ton lately: A baby was found in a dumpster. And Girls Gone Wild! was going to throw a party here. They canceled it. I found this article below.
'Girls Gone Wild' event canceled
Campus groups ask city for help in stopping controversial entertainers
By Mallory Simon | Indiana Daily Student | Thursday, January 25, 2007
More than 125 members of the Bloomington community, including students, faculty members, administrators and campus groups, signed a petition Wednesday calling for the event to be canceled, according to e-mails obtained by the Indiana Daily Student.
Jake's owner Dave Kubiak and representatives with "Girls Gone Wild" refused interviews with the IDS.
Kubiak, owner and manager of Bluebird, also cancelled a show in September 2006 featuring a Jamaican artist with anti-gay song lyrics.
Bloomington Safe & Civil City Director Beverly Calender-Anderson said administrators within the city government including Mayor Mark Kruzan were notified about the outrage regarding the event and a possible protest, which spurred a meeting Wednesday afternoon with the nightclub's owners.
"We spoke with the owners of Jake's and expressed our concerns that this was not appropriate entertainment for this community," Anderson said.
Anderson said at the conclusion of the meeting that the owners of Jake's, 419 N. Walnut St., were weighing their options about whether to cancel the event.
Wednesday night Kubiak responded to criticism by canceling the event but declined to speak with the press about the situation.
"We are sorry if the idea offended anyone, that was not the idea," Kubiak wrote in an e-mail sent to various campus groups. "We respect our town and would like to put this behind us."
According to an e-mail from Kruzan, Jake's will now be hosting a "college-age music evening" instead of the "Girls Gone Wild" event.
Uproar about the event began with the creation of a Facebook group last week by Bloomington resident and former IU student Liz Ladd, whose group's description said: "Porn is a business and its workers should be contracted while they're sober and paid with money, not T-shirts, hats and underwear."
Less than one week later, there were more than 160 members of the global group. Ladd said her concern was sparked by a recent Los Angeles Times article that described several allegations of rape against "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis.
"I thought I would help make people aware," she said. "It was important to still respect people's right to make choices, but to also help them make an informed one."
Carol McCord, assistant dean for the Office for Women's Affairs, said the tactics used by the workers of "Girls Gone Wild" were of the most concern.
"It's not that we are against women having the right to choose what they want to do with their bodies," McCord said. "If a woman chooses to go into the bus or about making pornography that's different to me than her being coerced when drunk and someone getting rich off of it. As an advocate for women, I want to make sure they have the right information about these people and their tactics."
Francis and his company have found themselves in legal trouble regarding several allegations against them, including using girls who were under the age 18 in their videos.
In September 2006, Mantra Films Inc., the company that produces "Girls Gone Wild," pled guilty to charges that it failed to document the ages of girls in Florida and were fined $2.1 million according to court records. On Monday, Francis himself was sentenced to two years' probation and 200 hours of community service for violation of federal laws which seek to protect the exploitation of minors.
The debate about the event at Jake's is not the first of its kind to take place in Bloomington. In 2002, "Girls Gone Wild" made a stop at Vertigo Nightclub, which no longer exists. The same year, film crews from Shane's World filmed a porn movie in Teter Quad, for "Shane's World Vol. 32: Campus Invasion." The incident was donned the "dorm porn" and garnered national press attention, according to previous IDS articles. In 2004, a freshman created the Web site www.teenkeira.com, which is now closed, where she posted semi-nude photos of herself from her Briscoe-Shoemaker dorm room. The University eventually decided not to take any judicial action against her. In 2005, Playboy made its way to the Hoosier state for its "Girls of the Big Ten Party Schools" issue.
While pornographic materials and IU may have a history together, Erick Janssen, Associate Scientist at the Kinsey Institute, said the reason why students engage in this kind of behavior merits more research. Janssen spoke of several issues which arise out of the "Girls Gone Wild" debate, including whether the outrage would be the same if it were males and not females engaging in the behavior, whether the prevalence of sexual material on the internet is a factor, and issues about regret, morals and consent.
"It'd be silly to assume there was just one reason," he said. "When it comes to the reason, it can be anything from someone wanting to be liked by the people around them, the disinhibition due to alcohol, for others it may be attention, or, maybe they truly really like that T-shirt."
With the event canceled, the debate about what would have happened, what could have happened and why girls did what they did, will likely be laid to rest. Still, Ladd and several of the campus groups have lauded the quick movement of the campus community and the aid of the city in helping to reach an agreement.
"I'm thrilled, it's a great example of grass-roots work," she said. "I truly didn't think it was possible to cancel the event. But, I think it's great that enough people cared enough to put something together to not only raise awareness but to say we don't want this in our community."
While this cancelation is a socio-political boost to our modest college town, in some ways I feel at a loss. Though sexist and creepy, a local Girls Gone Wild! party could have afforded me the priceless opportunity of opening the local paper and seeing the blurred pictures of any number of my students lifting their shirts in a drunken torpor. Then the next day, when they come to class, I could just ask, "Where are your Mardi Gras beads?"
posted by Danny Thanh Nguyen at 9:54 PM
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