Great or distasteful headline, which I won't repeat

[hoosier]

'Bottoms up, panties down' shirts pulled by frat

By Julia Neyman
November 13, 2003


The sight of colorful fraternity rush shirts may be more rare this fall following an incident last week when two fraternities urged members to stop wearing their shirts after EmPower and Women's Coalition called the shirts an expression of sexual harassment.

Chi Psi and Phi Delta Theta fraternities sold and distributed hundreds of T-shirts bearing suggestive logos and pitch lines in the past month both to fraternity members and Northwestern students.

The Lodge's T-shirt was a parody of Coppertone's logo, featuring a child with a dog pulling at her underwear accompanied by the slogan, "Bottoms up, panties down."

Phi Delt printed two shirts, one referring to the fraternity house's "the hole" nickname that said "put it in the hole." A matching T-shirt, designed for women to wear, depicted a woman on all fours with the phrase, "Just waiting for a Delt."

"(The Lodge) hit the triple crown of date rape, pedophilia and alcoholism -- all in one shirt," said Vickie Cook, president of EmPower, a feminist organization comprising sorority members.

Cook, a Weinberg senior, added, "A lot of people were really offended about the shirts," because the images and phrases struck them as degrading and sexually offensive.

When members of Women's Co and EmPower began to question the taste and humor of the T-shirts' emblems and messages, they contacted Kyle Pendleton, NU's associate director of fraternity and sorority life.

EmPower, Pendleton and IFC President Jeremy Esposito met to discuss whether the shirts were in line with the values of the fraternities that they represented, Pendleton said. They decided to write to each fraternity's president to let them decide how to handle the problem.

Both fraternities have since forbidden their members to wear the shirts under threat of consequences from the internal judicial board. Nonfraternity members caught wearing the shirts also will be sanctioned by the university, Interfraternity Council officials said.

"Both of the presidents have been really receptive in working on this matter," said Esposito, a Medill senior. "They have been really understanding that if these T-shirts offend anyone in our community, they want to make amends."

Both presidents decided to ask members not to wear the shirts on campus.

"We did not want to offend people and we misjudged the offensiveness of the shirts," said Samuel Adams, president of the Lodge. The Lodge is hoping to print new rush shirts, possibly with financial aid from IFC, said Adams, a Weinberg junior.

But some fraternity members said the suggestive shirts merely were harmless and funny.

"The message on our T-shirt was meant as tongue-in-cheek and was taken too seriously by too many people," said Eric Greenberg, a Weinberg sophomore and member of Phi Delt.

All parties involved said they hope that the incident will forge a closer working relationship between campus women's groups and Greek organizations. Cook said she believes this incident could serve as a springboard for EmPower to educate and work with fraternities in the future.

IFC also is considering modifying their constitution to clarify the definition of sexual harassment. With clearer guidelines, Esposito said, they may be able to better address such a situation in the future.

"We handled the situation extremely well," Esposito said. "Something went wrong and we handled it extremely quickly and in the best possible way for the groups involved."

[Pi Kapp 142]

I am not defending the shirts, but aren't people allowed to wear them under the FIrst Amendment? If so, how can the administraters ban them?

[DeltAlum]

If I read it correctly, the chapter presidents banned the shirts, not the university, so there's no First Amendment issue since the fraternity is not a government entity.

Besides, if the chapters (and brothers) really do understand that the shirts are offensive, why would they wear them?

[TigerLilly]

The chapter presidents banned the shirts for their members, but --
"Nonfraternity members caught wearing the shirts also will be sanctioned by the university"
-- are they allowed to do that, with First Amendment rights? Hmmm...
Not that I'm defending the shirts, either...I don't know who would WANT to wear them, but I don't know that the university should be able to say if they CAN wear them.

[Tom Earp]

Good taste is just that!

Promoting a Greek Organization, what is wrong with that?

But over stepping the very boundry of that brings the words Good Taste Back into the big picture!

Who are they trying to impress? Who are They trying to recruit and who are they trying get to look down thier noses at them when the flash/lash back comes to haunt them just like it is here!

[DeltAlum]

Originally posted by TigerLilly
-- are they allowed to do that, with First Amendment rights? Hmmm...

According to the attorneys who contribute to GC, The First Amendment protects our free speech from government interference only. If Northwestern isn't a part of the (a?) government (for instance, state owned), the First doesn't apply.

Northwestern is a private school. Right?

The question might be if the amendment would apply if the school accepts state or federal funds -- like in research grants, etc.

Any of you lawyers want to weigh in?

[DeltaSigStan]

I don't get it, there are a lot of houses here that use what would be constituted as sexual content, and our greek admin never seem to care.

[DeltAlum]

Originally posted by DeltaSigStan
I don't get it, there are a lot of houses here that use what would be constituted as sexual content, and our greek admin never seem to care.

If it's in bad taste, maybe they should.

[Tom Earp]

Stan, I can understand what you are saying along with D A !

Now the question is, is it right!???

Arent , You and your Brothers try to hold yourselves above the Those that do not have standards as High.


Dude, I know that they can do it! Get in the Fray, do what you do so well! It may hurt for a while, but the end result is the best!

[sugar and spice]

IMO there's a difference between sexual content on t-shirts and shirts like these. The first may just be in bad taste, but the second verges on downright scary. I think stuff like this is beyond just "sexual content" and really promotes the "fraternity gang rape" stereotype that I think is one of the worst associated with the Greek system, beyond our alcohol issues and most of the hazing ones. Fraternities should be careful with what they put on their shirts -- even if you don't care about PR, you don't want to scare all the women on campus away from your house because they think they're going to get raped there!

First amendment rights? HAHA i went to a school where every shirt made by an official campus organization, GLO, or not, had to go through Student Activities and be approved. If you had a shirt made and not approved, you could get in a lot of trouble.