Imagine holding a beauty pageant with unsuspecting contestants. That’s what’s been happening in Seattle.
A website calling itself May Madness has set up a bracket system for deciding the “hottest” women on the Seattle Pacific University campus, with open comment threads discussing the looks of the women in question. While I find that sexist in and of itself, it gets worse. Many of the women didn’t know they were on it. The website owner, Matthew Gronlund, collected photos and profiles from My Space and Face Book to run the competition.
According to the Seattle PI he says: “This wasn’t done to be hurtful in any way,” he said. “I’m really taken aback by how much controversy this has generated. I wanted to do this in a way that was respectful to women. I’m sorry for any pain this has caused anybody.”
How, in any interpretation, is this respectful of women? Setting them up, without the knowledge of many of them, to be judged on their looks? I’d love to know what, if any, advertising revenue the site generated.
He claims to have run a similar competition with the University of Washington, but it generated no controversy. The PI says the site has now been taken down, but the damage has been done.
“I personally don’t feel comfortable with being judged on the way that I look,” she said. “It’s hurtful,” says SPU senior Kerry Riley, who found out from a friend that she’d be included on the site.
The university has responded swiftly and firmly.
In a memo to students, the faculty and staff members, President Philip Eaton described the comments on the Web site as unacceptable. He also said that the campus would schedule a meeting for those who were affected by it.
“I call on us to gather around our women who have felt truly wounded in this episode and those who walk wounded because of the spurious demands of the culture on what it means to be a woman,” he wrote.
Senior Kristina DeMain organized today’s rally to discuss the treatment of women on campus — an issue that goes beyond this incident, she said.
“We want to get at the heart of the issue that women are not equally valued and not equally treated,” she said.
Let’s hope it’s not just women who show up.