Spring Break
Letter to the editor: Sexism in Airband
Issue date: 4/6/09 Section: Opinions
I attended Airband on Friday, March 27, in hopes of being entertained for the night.
I did see a great deal of enthusiasm from sororities and fraternities, but I found one thing to be a bit unsettling.
What I am referring to is the offensive portrayal of women during the fraternity dances.
I enjoy a good laugh as much as the next person.
However, I did not find the fraternity dances funny.
In fact, I found it incredibly insulting to women.
According to these fraternities, every woman is blonde and has large breasts.
She is also unintelligent and needs to be saved by a man as each dance showed.
While these men pretended to be women, the audience cheered on their stupidity.
Do they have to go for the cheap laugh and mock women?
The sororities seemed to work really hard on their dance routines, and it showed.
The fraternities were a joke, and it was obvious to every non-Greek there.
The image of fraternities at EIU greatly suffers from this archaic display of patriarchy and insensitivity toward women, and I hope it will not be continued in next year's Airband competition.
Sheila Dugan
Senior psychology and history major
I did see a great deal of enthusiasm from sororities and fraternities, but I found one thing to be a bit unsettling.
What I am referring to is the offensive portrayal of women during the fraternity dances.
I enjoy a good laugh as much as the next person.
However, I did not find the fraternity dances funny.
In fact, I found it incredibly insulting to women.
According to these fraternities, every woman is blonde and has large breasts.
She is also unintelligent and needs to be saved by a man as each dance showed.
While these men pretended to be women, the audience cheered on their stupidity.
Do they have to go for the cheap laugh and mock women?
The sororities seemed to work really hard on their dance routines, and it showed.
The fraternities were a joke, and it was obvious to every non-Greek there.
The image of fraternities at EIU greatly suffers from this archaic display of patriarchy and insensitivity toward women, and I hope it will not be continued in next year's Airband competition.
Sheila Dugan
Senior psychology and history major
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Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 21
male airbander
posted 4/06/09 @ 10:20 AM CST
Wow, it has been a long time since i have read something that fails this hard. This is what the legitimate struggle for womens right has come to? Do movies such as norbert and big mamas house offend you as well?
Lets ignore the fact that the frats all have FEMALE cheering sections and FEMALE coaches. (Continued…)
MLeon
Mike Leon
posted 4/06/09 @ 11:30 AM CST
I understand that fraternity men dressing in drag and dancing provocatively may seem offensive. However, this show is not meant to offend. The dressing in drag was cheered on because everyone, including parents and sorority members, found it entertaining. (Continued…)
Erik
posted 4/06/09 @ 2:03 PM CST
Ok I'm sorry but trying to play the whole, we don't have as much training as girls card isn't going to work. There are numerous girls who do airband who have never danced in their life. (Continued…)
MLeon
Mike Leon
posted 4/06/09 @ 4:11 PM CST
"The fraternities put all their time and effort into making a mockery of the competition and the female image."
This is blatantly wrong, ignorant and in bad taste. (Continued…)
Kelly
posted 4/06/09 @ 5:36 PM CST
I applaud Sheila for her insightful commentary about this display of blatant sexism. Like Erik previously stated, Sheila was in no way attempting to attack the immense level of physical work that is put into these performances. (Continued…)
MLeon
Mike Leon
posted 4/06/09 @ 5:57 PM CST
If the problem is with the competition itself, then your argument should be made against the judges and the crowd.
Year after year, fraternities put on performances and often incorporate the "insensitive" costumes you mentioned. (Continued…)
mattimeo
Matt Mattingly
posted 4/07/09 @ 12:26 AM CST
As an EIU alum with a double History degree, (apparently relevant since the original author was a senior History major) and an EIU fraternity founding father and alumnus, I am even more vexed by the insinuation that somehow the performances by the fraternities at Airband 2009 were "sexist. (Continued…)
Josh Stevens
posted 4/07/09 @ 4:47 PM CST
Frats dressing in drag...enough said...i honestly couldn't care what the reasoning is...
phigz17
Patrick
posted 4/08/09 @ 1:46 AM CST
Everyone knows the stereotypes given to fraternities. The acts performed during Airband certainly aren't helping clear them up. The way I see it, fraternity and sorority members, past and present, are likely the main audience at this event, so any argument saying that the audience was in approval is not entirely legitimate, in my opinion. (Continued…)
EIU Alum
posted 4/08/09 @ 11:15 AM CST
The fact of the matter is that as long as there is greek life on campus, non-greeks will take every opportunity to bash them.
"Frats dressing in drag. (Continued…)
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