If you haven't seen the Starf*ck posters yet, you'll see them soon enough. They're plastered all over campus and stick out like a turd in a punch bowl. For those of you who have somehow missed out, let me describe two of the posters. One has a scantily clad woman grabbing another woman's breasts. Another, which was on my dinner table in the Ratty, shows someone grabbing a sheathed boner. Enough said. You get the picture.
The bottom line is that these posters are inappropriate and unnecessary regardless of the sexual orientation of the subjects. With dozens stapled up around campus and littering the dining halls there is no way Brown students, prospective students and their parents and citizens of Providence can avoid them. Everybody sees them whether they want to or not. The posters lack creativity, modesty and subtlety. With a name like Starf*ck and the dance's infamous reputation, there is no need for the vulgar posters. In fact, there is no need for that type of advertising in any context.
Starf*ck's posters are an in-your-face declaration that certain groups at Brown can do seemingly whatever they want. But why is it that the Queer Alliance can get away with posting B-rate pornography around campus? Heck, Delta Phi was chastised for having a "Ho Down" party last year, but they never put up sexual pictures. The answer is simple enough: The Queer Alliance is protected by a politically correct force field; they benefit from a typical double standard on our overreaching liberal campus.
Let's consider a hypothetical situation. Say some of the fraternities at Brown decided to throw a party called Frat F*ck. To advertise, they put up blatantly explicit posters of, for instance, two people engaging in raw intercourse. Imagine a picture of somebody grabbing a sheathed boner. Good gracious! Can you imagine the uproar in reaction to those posters and a dozen variations? How about a picture of a cheerleader snuggling up in a frat boy's crotch with dinner?
It wouldn't be long before Brown would go berserk. One can imagine cries from the Female Sexuality Workshop, Women's Studies at Brown, Gender Studies, the Coalition Against Relationship Abuse, the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, the Coalition for Social Justice and maybe even the Queer Alliance. "Objectifying women!" "Violation of women's rights!" You wouldn't and shouldn't even have to be in a group to be disgusted by Frat F*ck; after all, it shows gratuitous sex and nudity. The point is, my imaginary Frat F*ck posters are just as bad as Starf*ck posters, but over the years, the Queer Alliance's posters have gotten steadily more provocative and explicit.
Have I heard complaints about the Queer Alliance's posters? Sure, but only among friends. My friends and I are not the only ones bothered. Yet never have I caught wind of a student group or administrator standing up to the inappropriateness of Queer Alliance posters. These posters seem to be objectifying women, and men, too. Why then are people so quiet?
I found out the answer out recently. After I first complained about the pictures in the Ratty, a guy at my table commented, "You sound like my grandma." In brief, people are quiet not only because they are afraid of being called grandmas, but because they're afraid of being falsely labeled as bigots and homophobes. It's a pathetic truth. By condemning the posters, I will inevitably be accused of condemning the Queer Alliance. So goes the logic of political correctness. Any attack on the posters is seen as an attack on the Queer Alliance and its members.
But I am neither a bigot nor homophobe, nor grandma for that matter. As far as I'm concerned, the dance should go on. But the posters should be toned down. Even more importantly, other Brown students and groups disturbed by Starf*ck advertising and the PC double standard should speak up.
John Nagler '07 is an American history concentrator.
