Maneater, I wanna love you, I really do. You’ve done a whole lot for me as a writer. When I started working for the paper four years ago, it was the first time I had ever written a real news story. Now I’m graduating with a degree in magazine editing. I learned more about journalism working for your paper than almost anywhere else on campus, and I’m sure many journalism students can say the same.
I try to defend you all the time because I know that The Maneater is a paper primarily set up for younger students to learn. But I can’t keep fighting these battles for you if you’re going to continue to make bad choices. There was really no reason for you to riddle your April Fools’ issue with hate speech. I would like to think that myself and the other editors who trained you taught you better than that. I know, I know, you thought it was funny. Real talk: It’s not.
You have to take into account that every time you say something offensive, you lose readers, and you lose your credibility. I was pissed off when you ran those opinion pieces in MOVE (my former section) that slut-shamed both women and gay men. I was pissed off by the non-apology you wrote for those pieces. I’m really pissed off now.
My friends at the Women’s Center, LGBTQ Center, RSVP and myriad other organizations that line the halls your office sits in are really smart. They can teach you things if you’re willing to listen. Here are three: 1. Carpeteater is an offensive term. 2. You are not allowed to use the words “cunt” or “whore.” These words are offensive to women. Come down the hall and talk to me at the Women’s Center if that needs to be explained further. 3. Really? You’re going to publish more articles that tokenize and poke fun at the LGBTQ community DURING Pride Month?! 4. Jokes with a target are not jokes; they’re hate speech. This means jokes about all people, be it members of the LGBTQ community, women, fraternity men, etc. The April Fools issue is not about hate, it’s about bringing the staff and school together with jokes that everyone can laugh at. These jokes were not funny; they were not satire. They were tasteless and stupid.
Get it together. I want to be proud of The Maneater, and I want people to pay attention to all the awesome stuff you do, not the really bad decisions that you seem to be making now more than ever. I have faith in all of you. I know you’re not stupid. So prove it to everyone else and think twice before you publish something like this past week’s issue. Because quite frankly, I’m ashamed of you.
Andrea Kszystniak
Senior, Magazine Journalism student
Andrea.kszystyniak@gmail.com