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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 18, 1998)
lursday • June 18,1998 The Battalion PINION n he ’908 femme fatale omen misuse the word ‘bitch’ as a positive term to equate strength seems t 'st. hU ■ ‘irou^l ‘eper v;: Fhoupl TinksiJ no of tin— to be (W as ^ r ' vin g ' n my car listen angijjng to the radio one day. 0 f | lr L Then this song comes on, ears ^ "d it has Joe Schumacher columnist een on the ack he i ;B or a cWyhile now. sitisil by |ralo:Jeredith ^■aks. The horus is I; oirething M this, ich,butT 01 a this, [ipeect’ i rn a that, 'm a bitch, * equ jar blah lucks lah ..." 1 did not care to listen ring oit in depth. itccli-Rlalfway into the song I h\ r joiild not take it any more and unins jut in a tape of my own. pernstjdowever, after the "intellec- Ido ually stimulating" lyrics, two hojughts then occurred to me. isorB’his seems to be a song cele- heapjrating the diversity of woman- I lood (i.e., the many roles they )la\ in life). But I would never I :all my mother, or any other im- like prtant woman in my life, a . nigrptch" as a term of endearment. [ecopuBt seems Brooks is not the |e libBy one who seems to take joy Eli IjBeferring to herself as a bitch. niMyhat is worse is the chorus I of women singing along with pVini»)oks. Surely you have heard [LabMier women say, "1 can be a | real bitch," usually almost tak ing pride in that fact. Additionally, Brooks, a stringy-haired, lily white girl, performs a song with "bitch" in it and it is a top-ten hit. People, women in particular, seem to like the song and like the idea of being a bitch. Chances are you will not see some guy singing along. This song, along with a host of other radio-friendly tunes performed by other women, has become an anthem for pseudo feminism. However, when Ice Cube, a gangsta rapper, writes a song like "Life ain't nothin' but bitch es and money, " the same word is used, but Ice Cube is consid ered a woman-hater. Cube's usage of the word seems to reduce women to a ma terial status, so why doesn't Brooks' use do the same? The word bitch is not a homonym. The dictionary still defines it as a female dog and that cannot be very appealing. However, Brooks' song seems to sing about being a bitch as something to be proud of and join hands in praise. The word "bitch" has histori cally been a derogatory word when used toward women. Now it seems that some people, some pop singers in particular, are trying to change the definition of the word. However, by associating all these positive attributes with this insulting word, all that is being done is furthering the stereotype that the only way for a woman to get any respect is to be a bitch. Maybe the idea is that by giv ing this word positive mean ings, it will erase the intended insult. It is a shame that this word often is associated with a woman who is strong, ambi tious and determined. "Bitch" is still a horrible word to use in reference to a woman, regard less of what positive meanings have been attached to it. This usage of word seems to suggest that the only way for a woman to be successful is to take on the qualities of a bitch. The notion is that if a woman wishes to avoid being a bitch, she should not be assertive or have any of her own ideas. She should not strive for suc cess; she should merely settle for what she has. The word "bitch," when used toward another human being, especially a woman, is deroga tory, no matter how many posi tive words people try to at tribute to it. Women, be strong. Be successful. Be independent. Don't be a bitch. Joe Schumacher is a senior journalism major. nM YOUR MEW ATIDRH0S, WEl?E TRYING TO SET YOU YWAVjNnY. onjt IS TTIW; A FRENCH M&Gp] I WANT THE COVER of'CDsfyp", I vergrown community hrubbery causes accidents Chris Huffines columnist /Tany Aggies drive around Bryan-College \ /1 Station. They usually think nothing of the ■ ™ J-fact that they are directing more than a ton- ‘d'a-half of steel at speeds of up to 50 miles per Ur ' And most, if not all, of ese students have, at one time another, gotten into or almost 3 fen into an auto accident, oone is eager to experience (other) auto accident. However, there is a problem ere in Bryan-College Station la t is a series of accidents just ai ting to happen. Itissosim- e and so obvious, but no one as recognized the problem to )r rect it. That problem is that | n scaping at the corners of ma- pmtersections and driveways is so high many dri- ei ? cann °t see the road behind these obstructions. Many people probably do not think this is a prob- rri - Quite frankly, they either a) drive trucks and are S| aally sitting so high they can see over these shrubs ^ ) are total idiots who really do not understand that a T-bone collision, the kind this landscaping is most , e y to cause, their chances of survival are lower than neir already-low IQ's. rnagine for a minute the situation. Jane Doe, Class , . w ^° is a mother of one and pregnant with her H is driving along Harvey Road, past the College . °n mall. She is taking her son, little Johnny, to see uew Disney movie. Joe Aggie, who is a student at n *, as is driving out of the mall. He gets to the a ,° road and pulls out as far as he can. But Joe haHv U ^ e See t ^ e wa y down the road, what with bl g bush right by the mall sign. Jane has the green light, and Joe is going to turn right on red. He does not see her coming, and she as sumes he sees her. Joe pulls out, just in time to be hit by Jane. Joe gets broadsided and dies as the front of Jane's car smashes him into something with approxi mately the consistency of a beanie baby. Jane's child hits the dashboard, with his head, opening a blood vessel in his brain. He'll probably survive, but if the doctors are not very good very fast, he will suffer brain damage for the rest of his life. Jane hits the airbag, she's okay, but her stomach hits the steering wheel at the forty miles per hour she was travelling and she miscarries the fetus. This kind of situation is very likely if members of the community do not simply take the time to think and realize that the shrubs look nice but are a hazard to their customers and the community at large. Admit tedly, ignorance has caused more than its share of deaths, but this is intolerable. Unfortunately, Aggies cannot do much directly. The Redpots are not going to lead a detour through town one Saturday and start chopping shrubs. This won't ever make The Big Event's "To-Do" list. However, Aggies can do a little extra work (I know iTs hard) and remember to avoid those comers that are dan gerous, and maybe avoid that accident waiting to happen. Driving any sort of automobile is driving a ton- and-a-half death machine. Cruising around with a spotless record, it is easy to forget that. It usually takes some sort of disaster, minor or major, to shatter the il lusion of total safety. Don't let that disaster be a death. Chris Huffines is a sophomore speech communications major. Mr£W \ ^ 1 1 in a SB \aJL\ ' • IU'. with A&M enrollment policy s anyone who ever has played a team sport , knows, the worst dam- JOHN Lemons columnist age is caused not by the oppo nent who wants to beat you, but by the well-inten tioned team member who just is n't any good. After all, in baseball, it is not necessarily the guy batting .400 from the other team that kills you, it is the outfielder who cannot catch a fly ball. Similarly, it is the well-inten tioned Texas Legislature that has opened a Pandora's box full of problems for Texas A&M University this coming fall. The Legislature, in an at tempt to counteract the effects of the now infamous Hopwood decision, has stymied Texas with a law that has left A&M scrambling to clean up the Leg islature's mess. The law in question is Senate Bill 588. Senate Bill 588 requires all Texas public universities to offer admission to any student in the state who graduated in the top 10 percent of his or her high-school graduating class. The bill is a brute-force means of encouraging diversity within state universities. It is sort of the equivalent to cutting off one's finger to take care of a hangnail — once the finger is gone, that pesky hang nail will never be a problem again. Since universities were barred from using affirmative action programs to attract mi nority students, the Legislature opened up the pool of guaran teed admits in the hope this would maintain diversity on campus. They say hindsight is 20/20, but only the most myopic of prognosticators could have failed to predict the results of Senate Bill 588 — this fall, A&M will be riddled with its largest freshman class since 1987. Seven thousand two hun dred freshman have accepted membership into the Class of 2002. That is about 1,000 more students than A&M had hoped for. The state Legislature had A&M plug the leak in the dam caused by Hopwood, only to be buried under the flood created by Senate Bill 588. An increase in the number of admissions A&M offered, how ever, did not cause this flood of students. A&M usually accepts students in the top-10 percent of their class. Dr. Ronald Douglas, execu- Similarly, it is the well-intentioned Texas Legislature that has opened a Pandora’s box full of problems for Texas A&M University this coming fall. tive vice president and provost, said it is the date when prospective students found out about their admission to the University that has caused the flood. "It has been shown that if students are given acceptance information earlier there is a likelihood that acceptance numbers go up," Douglas said. Since a lot, and I do mean a lot, of high-school seniors knew for certain they would be get ting into A&M, they decided to come. So, is the unusually large Class of '02 too big a burden for A&M to bear? Well, no, but this enormous class has created its fair share of winners and losers on campus. Among the losers is the Class of '02 itself. Although the University has opened extra sections in primarily freshman courses, with 1,000 extra bodies competing for those seats, freshman classes are bound to be crowded. High-school students who are not in the top-10 percent of their class lose, too. A&M is go ing to have to adjust the num ber of students it accepts each year so that the surprising Class of '02 becomes a one-time occurrence. This has to be especially bit ter for students attending high schools with rigorous academic programs, where a student in the eleventh percentile of his class may have been in the top one percent at another school. Perhaps the biggest losers, though, are students on the ad missions waiting list. These students will not be offered admission to A&M. As a consolation prize, they will be offered spots at Texas A&M University at Galveston or guaranteed transfer into A&M next year. There are, however, a couple of winners. Proponents of cultural diver sity will be pleased to know that there will be more minority students in the Class of '02 than in A&M's previous two classes. Also, the Corps of Cadets is anticipating between 750 and 800 new freshmen for this up coming year, an increase from 630 freshman in the Class of '01. So, thanks to the state Legisla ture, Aggies can expect to meet a lot of freshman in the fall. The Legislature also de serves thanks for offering proof that although quick fixes may help with a problem, they also make a mess. Too bad the Legislature isn't the one who has to clean it up. John Lemons is an electrical engineering graduate student.