28th
![I’m very (VERY) hesitant to reblog this. But its perfect. And it addresses something I feel very strongly about. And I agree with it 100%.
And if reblogging someone else’s tumblr post isnt the best way possible to bring up a touchy and sensitive subject with people that you know, love, and respect then I dont know what is.
Because seriously Daily What, whats with the Hottie of the Day crap?
boringoldraphael:
I recently encountered a banner ad for CollegeHumor’s email newsletter. The newsletter, the ad promised, offers a weekly rundown of the site’s funny pictures, original videos, and hot girls.
This ad really took me by surprise. CollegeHumor has done such a good job of reinventing itself over the last five years as a premier sketch comedy hub I’d completely forgotten that it started as little more than links to funny pictures and hot girls. But if you go to the site, you’ll see that they do in fact still feature sexy pictures, organized into two categories: Cute College Girl, and Hottest College Girl.
This is women-as-objects, plain and simple. I’m sure these pictures drive up web traffic, but I don’t know what they have to do with Humor, College or otherwise.
CollegeHumor is a comedy site, and a good one, and a very influential one, especially among young people. The fact that it still has a page devoted to seemingly-not-comedy-related sexy girls gives credence to the lie that comedy is for men, and not just men, but men who like looking at pictures of sexy girls.
CollegeHumor Managing Editor Sarah Schneider recently contributed an essayto Splitsider’s Women in Comedy week. In it, she bemoans the dearth of female applicants and asks why more funny women don’t seek internships at CH. I’m curious what CollegeHumor is doing to court female comedians, because when I visit the site, I get a clear message: If you’re a woman and you want to be featured on CollegeHumor, you can be smart and funny like Sarah Schneider, or you can be a hot co-ed who takes a sexy picture of herself (and you have a much better shot if you’re the latter).
In the comments of Schneider’s article, Splitsider editor Adam Frucci defends CollegeHumoragainst accusations of sexism by stating that “CollegeHumor caters towards a young, male audience […] but catering to a male audience is not the same as being sexist or female-unfriendly.” I would amend his statement slightly: Catering to a male audience doesn’t have to be the same as being sexist or female-unfriendly. And yet, so often it is.
SIDE NOTE: It’s alarming how normal this sort of thing is. The Daily Whatis a blog I enjoy and regularly reblog. It features interesting videos and links to great articles. The blog has a proudly progressive editorial slant and regularly admonishes homophobes and racists. Every night they post a series of Late Links, which are primarily pictures of supermodels in lingerie and celebrity cleavage. This makes me uncomfortable every time, and I can’t imagine I’m the only one.
The reason I’m focusing on CollegeHumor and The Daily What is not because they’re the worst, or even because I want to make examples of them, but because in general I think of these guys as the good guys, and I think they have more power than they realize. It would be so easy to just stop bundling in cheesecake photos with their other content. This is not the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue or a million dollar Super Bowl ad. I’ve visited the CollegeHumor offices in New York. They’re full of young people like me who have a seriousness about their craft and a pride in what they do.
I know for a fact that several CollegeHumor employees, some very high up, read my blog. If you work for CollegeHumor (or The Daily What) and you’re reading this, I implore you to ask yourself the following questions:
1) Are you aware that what you do / what your company does objectifies women, and not subtly or accidentally, but blatantly and proudly?
2) Does this embarrass you as much as it embarrasses me?
3) Is there anything you can do to make things better? Maybe you don’t have the authority to make a change, but maybe you know someone who does? And maybe that person is just waiting for someone like you to speak up?
This kind of casual objectification of women isn’t harmless, and it isn’t necessary. The subtext here is “We need to rely on these cheap tactics to drum up hits because we don’t believe our content is strong enough to support itself.” That might have been true in the early going, but I can’t believe it’s true today. Give yourselves some credit, guys. You’re better than this.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_liseo5QiuY1qzt0gko1_400.jpg)
I’m very (VERY) hesitant to reblog this. But its perfect. And it addresses something I feel very strongly about. And I agree with it 100%.
And if reblogging someone else’s tumblr post isnt the best way possible to bring up a touchy and sensitive subject with people that you know, love, and respect then I dont know what is.
Because seriously Daily What, whats with the Hottie of the Day crap?
I recently encountered a banner ad for CollegeHumor’s email newsletter. The newsletter, the ad promised, offers a weekly rundown of the site’s funny pictures, original videos, and hot girls.
This ad really took me by surprise. CollegeHumor has done such a good job of reinventing itself over the last five years as a premier sketch comedy hub I’d completely forgotten that it started as little more than links to funny pictures and hot girls. But if you go to the site, you’ll see that they do in fact still feature sexy pictures, organized into two categories: Cute College Girl, and Hottest College Girl.
This is women-as-objects, plain and simple. I’m sure these pictures drive up web traffic, but I don’t know what they have to do with Humor, College or otherwise.
CollegeHumor is a comedy site, and a good one, and a very influential one, especially among young people. The fact that it still has a page devoted to seemingly-not-comedy-related sexy girls gives credence to the lie that comedy is for men, and not just men, but men who like looking at pictures of sexy girls.
CollegeHumor Managing Editor Sarah Schneider recently contributed an essayto Splitsider’s Women in Comedy week. In it, she bemoans the dearth of female applicants and asks why more funny women don’t seek internships at CH. I’m curious what CollegeHumor is doing to court female comedians, because when I visit the site, I get a clear message: If you’re a woman and you want to be featured on CollegeHumor, you can be smart and funny like Sarah Schneider, or you can be a hot co-ed who takes a sexy picture of herself (and you have a much better shot if you’re the latter).
In the comments of Schneider’s article, Splitsider editor Adam Frucci defends CollegeHumoragainst accusations of sexism by stating that “CollegeHumor caters towards a young, male audience […] but catering to a male audience is not the same as being sexist or female-unfriendly.” I would amend his statement slightly: Catering to a male audience doesn’t have to be the same as being sexist or female-unfriendly. And yet, so often it is.
SIDE NOTE: It’s alarming how normal this sort of thing is. The Daily Whatis a blog I enjoy and regularly reblog. It features interesting videos and links to great articles. The blog has a proudly progressive editorial slant and regularly admonishes homophobes and racists. Every night they post a series of Late Links, which are primarily pictures of supermodels in lingerie and celebrity cleavage. This makes me uncomfortable every time, and I can’t imagine I’m the only one.
The reason I’m focusing on CollegeHumor and The Daily What is not because they’re the worst, or even because I want to make examples of them, but because in general I think of these guys as the good guys, and I think they have more power than they realize. It would be so easy to just stop bundling in cheesecake photos with their other content. This is not the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue or a million dollar Super Bowl ad. I’ve visited the CollegeHumor offices in New York. They’re full of young people like me who have a seriousness about their craft and a pride in what they do.
I know for a fact that several CollegeHumor employees, some very high up, read my blog. If you work for CollegeHumor (or The Daily What) and you’re reading this, I implore you to ask yourself the following questions:
1) Are you aware that what you do / what your company does objectifies women, and not subtly or accidentally, but blatantly and proudly?
2) Does this embarrass you as much as it embarrasses me?
3) Is there anything you can do to make things better? Maybe you don’t have the authority to make a change, but maybe you know someone who does? And maybe that person is just waiting for someone like you to speak up?
This kind of casual objectification of women isn’t harmless, and it isn’t necessary. The subtext here is “We need to rely on these cheap tactics to drum up hits because we don’t believe our content is strong enough to support itself.” That might have been true in the early going, but I can’t believe it’s true today. Give yourselves some credit, guys. You’re better than this.
