Posted on 12/14/2004 12:26:46 PM PST by ConservativeBamaFan
A private college is raising eyebrows with a recruiting postcard that shows a man surrounded by women and says students have the opportunity to "play the field."
Doane College sent the cartoon postcard last week to about 13,500 prospective students in California.
One frame shows student playing football for the Doane Tigers, with a caption that reads: ''Finally, a place where he could work toward the career of his choice. And also play the field.'' The next frame shows him talking to a group of attractive women and is captioned: ''And play the field some more.'' Some faculty members say the postcards objectify women and could lead prospective students to get the wrong idea about the four-year, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Church of Christ. The timing for the postcard also is troubling to some. Doane football player Alan Branting, 19, has been suspended and is awaiting trial on a charge of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in May. Administrators say the innuendo is harmless. The phrase ''play the field'' means to explore a variety of options, in relationships and other aspects of life, said J.S. Engebretson, the college's executive director of communications and marketing.
(Excerpt) Read more at famulus.msnbc.com ...
better team name would have possibly been the Trojans?
How dumb can some people get? Wait forget I asked, it is a university after all.
Oh that is what it means. I guess that is why you have a guy surrounded by a bunch of hot girls. Of course in this day of PC, I am surprised there wasn't an attractive guy or tow thrown in the 'field'.
Sexual "freedom" openly celebrated by a college? It was inevitable.
I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
Imagine a college suggesting that young men might have an interest in the opposing sex!
If they wanted to be more PC, they would have said about the football player that he could "play the field... or keep it on the team."
Merriam-Webster defines "play the field" as "to date or have romantic connections with more than one person". How horrid that a University would acknowledge that its students might actually date more than one person at a time. Such behavior is obviously foreign to young, unmarried persons.
I guess what bothers a lot of us is that a university is using sex to sell an education, just like it was a car, or a brand of shave cream, or something like that...
Just be glad that they are suggesting the "opposing sex"! LOL
"The timing for the postcard also is troubling to some. Doane football player Alan Branting, 19, has been suspended and is awaiting trial on a charge of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in May."
Play the field...before the grass grows.
(sorry if that's offensive, it seemed unavoidable.)
This is, however, a religious institution. Their target audience is students, and their target customers are the parents of those students. They may want to reconsider how they advertise for the investment dollars of parents who would be inclined to pay for their children to attend a christian college.
Not wrong, but most likely highly misguided.
I haven't seen the ad, but the offending portion is describes a young man standing and talking to a group of attractive young ladies. I assume that they're fully clothed. I don't see how that's selling sex, even by innuendo. Just that male students will have social opportunities at their school. "Playing the field" is a pretty innocent term by definition implying "dating" or "romance". Are those bad things? Is that something that offends Christian sensibilities? It seems kind of nice to me, and I'm awfully old-fashioned.
I suppose that some sleazy lawyer will even use the advertising in the defense of some campus date rapist. I'm not too sympathetic to feminists, but isn't there some common ground between liberals and conservatives that using sexuality to sell something that is totally unrelated cheapens us all?
I love to be reading about how the football player was playing the administrators wife AND daughter.
"Just doing as you suggeted, Sir"
I would guess the parents of the young ladies who are about to become the "field" these men will "play" in might want to keep their precious offspring safe from this kind of Husband Material.
I know I wouldn't allow my daughter to be offered up to some snot nosed user and abuser. Some college! Some PR!
Do we wonder why athletes have feelings of entitlement, or do we know why already?
It's not morally wrong but it does seem a bit of poor judgement to ask parents to pay hard earned and saved money to send their children to a christian university by advertising their opportunity to 'play the field'.
"Are those bad things? Is that something that offends Christian sensibilities? It seems kind of nice to me, and I'm awfully old-fashioned."
It seems like it isn't the purpose of college. I don't think that drinking (if done appropriately) is a sin, but I wouldn't want a college where I send my kid to have the large selection of local bars be its main selling point.
"We put down women who use up educational resources (supplied at least in part by taxpayers) to go husband shopping"
We? Do you have a mouse in your pocket? I don't have any objection to women pursuing their MRS degree.
"I suppose that some sleazy lawyer will even use the advertising in the defense of some campus date rapist."
huh? I can't imagine any judge with even a nodding familiarity with the rules of evidence would ever admit such a thing into the record.
"I'm not too sympathetic to feminists, but isn't there some common ground between liberals and conservatives that using sexuality to sell something that is totally unrelated cheapens us all?"
Sexuality? C'mon, the card shows a guy talking to girls, fergoodnessakes! If you think that's scandalous and sexual, you're certainly entitled to your opinion. I just think it's much ado about nothing.
Socialization is not the primary purpose of a University education, but it certainly is a major component. If a Christian college wants to promote the opportunity for Christian young men to meet like-minded young women in the context of dating and romance, that's a good thing.
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