Vers Libre | Vassar College bookstore: promoting gender roles

Brenna Gilbert Opinions Editor

Vassar’s school store serves as a greater symbolic role than many of us realize. The school store is the market of our school spirit, selling representations of what Vassar College values and stands for in everything from textbooks to rugby jerseys. Yet the other day when I went down to buy a sweatshirt for my little brother and a book for class, I was shocked to find that the Vassar our school store pedals these days is a problematic place, reinforcing gender stereotypes and degrading the intelligence of the Vassar community.

Consider for example the David and Goliath items that we carry. Right in the midst of our school paraphernalia, tucked between children’s track jackets and Vassar teddy bears, is a rack of their t-shirts. One of the t-shirts has a drawing of a retro winking white male with the words “Lost Dog, Breed: Male” emblazoned above him. “Also answers to ‘jerk’,” the shirt goes on to inform us, just in case we were missing the joke. The shirt describes him as “not too loyal” and “not too bright,” urging the person who finds him to “turn him over to the pound immediately.”

Funny, perhaps, if it weren’t in our school store, surrounded by items that are supposed to represent us. The image that this shirt perpetuates is one of the manipulative, thoughtless, white male whose life is expendable. In an environment that is devoted to combating stereotypes and creating progressive, independent individuals, we are still selling t-shirts that overlook the possibility of white men as anything other than reprehensible. I recognize the historical construction of white male patriarchal dominance, but should we continue to foster it in the school store? Do we really believe on Vassar campus that white men should be sent to the pound and exterminated? If we do, we have far bigger issues than the school store.

Lest women start to feel good about being left out of the gender bias for once, I should mention the pink t-shirt that lies alongside it. Bold letters read “Barbie’s Beauty Shop: We can’t make you smart, but at least you’ll look good!” The shirt enforces the constant cultural emphasis for women to be beautiful above all things. Her education is not important as long as she is still a commodified beauty. This is the view of women from which our school is literally profiting. We have always been a testament to progressive women’s education; why do we insist on undermining that to turn a profit?

These shirts are indistinguishable from the items around them as something separate from Vassar gear. To casual on-lookers, they appear to be just as representative of Vassar as the pennant hanging above them. One might argue, you don’t have to buy the shirts if they offend you. Perhaps, but I am not left with a choice when I am handed the Schick Quattro razor for free at the register.

In handing out razors to each woman who comes to the counter, the store is taking a side in the struggle against beauty myths that women face everyday: they are encouraging us to shave. Not only to shave, mind you, but with a pink razor, because it’ll be more feminine that way. If that weren’t enough of a slap in the face, read the patronizing little owner’s manual, a “bumper-to-bumper guide to your new high performance razor.” The manual starts with an idiot’s guide to each part of the razor, right down to the, and I quote, “metal bolt thing.” There’s a little section about how one might decorate one’s razor, as though a woman’s time is best spent crocheting a cozy for a personal care item.

The Quattro manual hyper-sexualizes the act of shaving, promising irresistible sexiness for “life-changing events like weddings, ritzy client lunches and all-important third dates.” Right there, this guidebook has articulated what it considers to be a women’s value: a wife, a business associate who needs sexy legs to get the job done and a sex-driven flirt. These are the values our school is handing out for free at the register. Yes, let me just put down my Women’s Studies book so that I’ll have room for that in my bag.

As a Seven Sisters school, we have a responsibility to uphold a standard of exemplary women’s education as well as a positive environment in which women can develop as individuals. We should also consider the gender politics we endorse for potential students. We work hard to ensure that Vassar is not a flakey place where men are blue and women are pink. We should not allow our school store to confuse that for us in the public eye or for ourselves.