COLUMN: Covering Up Issues

From Abby Beshkin's "All Set," Fall '95 From Abby Beshkin's "All Set," Fall '95I had always imagined that a college campus, by definition, would be a center for blatant political activism. Before I got to Penn, I figured that every issue -- be it national, local or campus-based -- would be taken to task and debated hotly with signs and flyers and rallies. People here tend to see the Penn student population as "apathetic." This apathy seems to extend from politics at large (which showed itself in the skimpy turnout at the Rendell/Rocks debate) to campus politics (hence the typically low voter turnout for UA elections). I'm not quite sure why this is. Maybe it's because, like all those catchy Time and Newsweek articles say, slacker college students of the '90s just don't care. Or maybe it's because Penn students feel that waving signs or actually being somewhere to demonstrate something is not an intellectual approach to change. That's why I was pleasantly surprised when a group of students got together to protest an important topic -- women's issues on campus. The supporters gathered in front of The Book Store two weeks ago to call into question the fact that the University Book Store houses a Clinique makeup counter. "Books not Blush," the rally was dubbed, highlighting the fact that space that could otherwise be used for books more befitting the academic mission of Penn was instead being used to sell makeup. Implied in flyers handed out about the rally is the fact that the protesters did not so much want The Book Store to remove the Clinique counter as they wanted to raise a serious questions: Should an academic institution be perpetuating the idea that women need to wear makeup? But while this is an important issue, I wonder why this was the one topic students chose. Didn't they realize that it's pretty likely the Community Service Living and Learning program will be chucked out of the Castle in the center of campus next year (Residential Living has already cancelled its plans to install Resnet in the building) so the Castle fraternity can have its house back? This would mean that the Walk would once again be almost solely populated by fraternities. Or why not protest the fact that two years ago the University decided to move the Penn Women's Center into the old Theta Xi house. That was two years ago, and that house in the middle of campus still stands empty. The underlying issues of the "Books not Blush" protest are real, and poignant. I understand the layers of irony and hypocrisy that surround the ideals of a woman's image and appearance in American society. And I understand the issues surrounding The Book Store -- that the bookstore of an Ivy League University should be advertising its philosophy texts rather than its make-up and Howard Stern books. But students who wanted to combat apathy could have waged a battle over a more practical issue instead of leaving it to fizzle out into the realm of the theoretical. Because the broader questions focused on what many people viewed as a relatively frivolous debate, the protest garnered more jeers than cheers, and many people missed the point. If the organizers had wanted to stir up controversy about an issue, they should have pinpointed something more tangible and feasibly changeable, and debated that. Given enough student protest the University may get moving on the Women's Center, or may at least rehouse the Community Service program into quarters comparable to Psi Upsilon's gracious Castle. And these are the kind of services on campus that in the long-run would do more to raise awareness of women's issues at Penn than knocking out the Clinique counter ever would. The fact is that the University Book Store moved the Clinique counter in because it found a market for it. It's obviously doing well, which, I realize was the point of the questions raised by the protest. But all women regardless of whether they wear makeup or not would benefit from the Women's Center being on campus, and would lose out in many ways by having yet another fraternity on the Walk. The idea of female beauty and of makeup date way back to before Clinique or Estee Lauder even existed. These ideals, fortunately or unfortunately, will continue to persist, regardless of how aware people are of them, regardless of whether The Book Store carries Clinique products. But some concrete steps can be taken to bring women's' issues to the forefront on campus. If the protesters could channel their energies a little more concretely next time, they might just do some good.