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Opinion
Centerfold success
11
Monday, April 22, 2002
Women should not be
discouraged to pose
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j 12 tot
Center
r he football
powerhouse
known as the
Big 12 Conference
icon will be seen in a
^nuch softer, perhaps
more revealing, light.
In its 25th Anniversary Edition pictorial featur
ing college age women. Playboy magazine will
feature “Women of the Big 12.” This is exciting
for the Big 12 Conference and its women who
are ready to bear all.
For women on this campus who might aspire
to pose for Playboy, this is an interesting opportu
nity and a possible entry into the entertainment
industry. Posing for Playboy is every woman’s
I right, and what has been seen as an exploitation
I of women, still remains a right of those who
[choose to be exposed. The Big 12 issue is billed
[as a step toward becoming a Playboy Playmate,
I and serves the dual purpose of allowing women to
I show their bodies and represent their respective
I universities. Make no mistake, this is by no means
I an encouragement for women on this campus to
| pose for Playboy. It is simply an example of a
woman’s right to choose to express herself, even
if that involves posing nude.
Playboy and its readers have a fascination
with college coeds, and while these students’
I willingness to pose may seem strange to some
naive members of the female sex, the college
Playmate is not at all a new concept. The maga
zine features a coed of the month and regularly
searches out the best college bars in the country.
Aggieland’s own Dixie Chicken was a featured
j ‘College Bar of the Month.’ There are often con
tests and polls to determine which college cam
puses have the hottest female populations.
Many NCAA conferences have been featured in
Playboy over the last 25 years.
The trouble lies with the censorship and
protest involved with posing nude as a represen
tative of a university population. Playboy has
met a lot of controversy in its search for coeds
across the nation. In 1996, Baylor University
officials threatened disciplinary action or expul
sion for any female student who interviewed
with Playboy when the magazine visited Waco.
Administrators were outraged when two students
posed for an issue, but the women graduated
before any action was taken against them. In a
similar incident, years before, two female editors
of Baylor’s student newspaper were released
after posing for a Playboy issue. Baylor’s strict
code of conduct prohibits such action and uni
versity officials were outraged by the students’
appearances in the magazine. The Playboy cam
pus quest has faced organized protest on a visit
to the University of Nebraska and opposition
from many women’s organizations on other cam
puses across the nation.
Here at A&M, thankfully, there has been no
pronounced opposition thus far from the
University or campus organizations and hopefully
the attitude will continue this week. The notion
that women are free to make their own choice to
pose nude
should prevail. In
the world of
adult entertain
ment, Playboy
is more rep
utable than most
magazines, and
this issue is an
opportunity for those
hoping to pursue a
career in this line of enter
tainment to win the favor of Big
12 fans.
For those wary of this idea, resist the
temptation to scoff at the thought of an
Aggie on the pages of Playboy; to each
her own, and the choices an individual
makes are one’s own. Women who
choose to pose, though, should be
aware of the damage that can be done
to reputations and lives through this kind
of action. Playboy can ruin a life as easi
ly as it can make it, and there are no
guarantees the Playboy Mansion or star
dom will be the final destination.
So, be aware of the risks involved with
this venture, but know that the decision lies
with the individual. This opportunity, no
matter how inappropriate it feels to sup
port, is like any other decision college
students are faced with. For anyone
chosen to be featured on the pages
of Playboy, do it in a tasteful man
ner, as it is a representation of
self, school and conference, and
besides being known as “the
girl who posed for Playboy,”
the issue will be available to
for all to see in the stacks
at Sterling C. Evans
Library.
Kelln Zimmer is a junior
English major.
RUBEN DELUNA* THE BATTALION
n use
)/
A
MAIL CALL
Tom Delay’s
words still heard
In response to what Sen.
Tom Delay said, I must agree.
This University is too hung up
on being politically correct and
appeasing the minority. What
happened to the University
that was proud of its differ
ences. I guess it got to many
weird stares. So much for
originality.
Jason Hancock
Class of 2004
Just because Tom Delay was
kicked out of Baylor and
never attended Texas A&M
does not mean he has the
knowledge to slander these
two highly prestigious
schools. That alone shows
that the students in these two
schools are more educated
than he will ever be.
His comment about Baylor
a nd Texas A&M shows how
educated he really is. Sex is
at all schools, even at BVU
ar >d the military academies. If
his daughter's moral convic
tions are so weak that to
niaintain them, she has to
stay isolated from any nega
tive moral influence, she is
destined for failure.
Getting a college degree is
about gaining life experience
and learning to live in harmo
ny with others' cultures and
lifestyles. It sounds like she
was not ready for that. Delay,
what else have you prepared
her for? Maybe he should
spend more time worrying
about that than about the
moral status of Baylor and
Texas A&M.
Kyle Kruppa
Class of 2002
Gosko refused,
therefore suspect
In response to Andi Baca's
April 19 column:
If Ms. Baca would have taken
the time to further investigate
the situation with Gosko, she
would have found that he
refused to identify the sub
stance in the bottle when
asked by security what it was.
For all they knew, it could have
been a flammable substance,
and little Gosko could have
been a little terrorist.
Justin Williamson
Class of 2005
Immigration has no simple solution
S ince terrorism was
established as a press
ing concern in the
American consciousness,
pressures have been put on
the government to better
monitor immigration. The
Justice Department is considering a quick-
fix proposal that will allow local police to
enforce immigration laws. This is policy
at its clumsiest, a dubious solution certain
to culminate in greater problems.
To be fair, according to the Census
Bureau, there may be more than 7 million
illegal immigrants living within the
United States. The Border Patrol is under
staffed and the Immigration
Naturalization Services (INS) employs a
trifling 2,000 enforcement agents along
the borders. With the reality of terrorist
threats, certainly the system needs refine
ment and increased resources to ensure
national security.
Despite these facts, the Justice
Department needs to look elsewhere, not
to the police departments. Using local
police in such a haphazard fashion is as
impractical as setting fire to crops just to
kill locusts. There are numerous reasons
why police should not monitor immigra
tion and why the Justice Department has
shied away from the idea in the past.
The Border Patrol and INS may be
understaffed, but it is sheer idiocy to throw
their burden on the overworked backs of
the police departments.
Immigration laws are com
plex, and it is not feasible to
instruct police as to every
important nuance and subtlety.
Moreover, the jail systems are
overburdened and would be
hard pressed to cope with waves of immi
grant law violators.
In a time when it is desperately impor
tant to tread carefully, such an awkward
policy maneuver would almost guarantee
significant increases in racial profiling
and civil rights abuses. Mountains of liti
gation would be sure to follow. Legal
immigrants justifiably fear they may
become targets in an overaggressive,
unsophisticated system.
Social problems also would ensue.
Police rely on immigrant victims and wit
nesses to communicate with them to pre
serve the peace, but such lines would be
instantly broken. Instead, they would delve
further underground, avoiding hospitals
and eschewing schools, constantly wary of
the police. The inevitable result of such
retreat and isolation is deterioration of
community health and welfare. The last
thing the United States needs is an increas
ingly complex system of underground
immigrants.
This is not to say that the immigrant
problem should be ignored, only that the
system first must be tailored. Even now.
Congress deliberates on the restructuring
or dissolution of the INS in the interest of
refinement. A House committee chaired by
Rep. James Sensenbrenner has proposed a
plan to dissolve the INS and replace it
with two separate agencies. He said, “The
agency (INS) is still in a deep quagmire. I
don’t think any additional attempt at inter
nal reorganizing can pull the INS out of
this morass in which it finds itself.”
The overwhelming majority of illegal
immigrants are lower-class Latinos that
individually and collectively pose no
threat to United States national security.
Rather than attack these huddled masses,
immigration agencies need to more care
fully target their efforts.
Seven million immigrants is a virtual
ocean of people, and it is frightening that
among those undocumented numbers, and
the next hijacker or bomber may be bid
ing his time. Rather then let fears over
whelm reason, government should act
carefully and productively uncover seek
threats to security. The police serve a cru
cial role that already consumes their
resources and efforts. Rather than append
anything to their list of responsibilities,
separate agencies should work to resolve
the immigration problems and restore a
sense of security to the public.
Dharmaraj Indurthy is a junior
physics major.
DHARMARAJ INDURTHY