OT: UConn student terrified by new husky dog logo

wat?

Huh?

For video.

What did I just read?

So she's saying use a real husky as their mascot? Sounds like an awesome idea



/s in case

this country has turned today's kids into a bunch of wimps. They cater to the minority for every little thing so they dont get offended.

I don't get it.  Was this woman writing raped by a Husky at some point in her life?

Is she saying that she had a bad experience with a husky and that the new logo is so realistic that it reminds her of it? What the hell?

I just took a major ride on the lollercoaster.

EDIT:  After reading the whole thing, it makes slightly more sense.  Kind of.  Not really.

I bet she isn't in a sorority.

I mean....come on

Is this the drinking thread?

Isn't UConn most known for its WOMEN's basketball team? Of all the schools that prioritize "male athletic peer culture," UConn ain't so bad.

As for the rest of it....see above comments of confusion.

what the OP was doing reading The Feminist Wire when he stumbled across that article.

That Husky is LITERALLY raping me with it's gaze.

Move their home football game to Michigan Stadium to de-emphasize sports.

I'm here for the gangbang.

Rename the mascot a Huskerete.

I mean, I guess they are in fact both dogs:

http://thefeministwire.com/2013/04/why-is-uconns-mascot-a-rape-meme/

Just a PSA, we're all being real misogynistic by commenting on this.

/femministwire.com.gov.gif

The letter is way too over-written with buzz words and rhetorical flourishes, so it's hard to figure out exactly what she means, but I think she's making 2 points: 

1. UConn has had a number of embarrasing incidents recently (APR-based postseason ban; athletes in trouble with law, specifically violence against women), and the administrations to be responding by re-branding rather than addressing the underlying issues.  This seems like a reasonable complaint on its face, though I don't know enough about the issues to figure if the criticism is accurate or not.

2, and the really confusing part.  The administration is playing into the worst aspects of stereotypical jock culture by creating a "fighting dog" image that "can't be messed with."  Personally, I think that's reading too much into a logo and a standard-issue coach's quote.  On the other hand, when the writer says "I know what it feels like to have a real life Husky look straight through you and to feel powerless, and to wonder if even the administration cannot “mess with them,"" I think the "real life Husky" she's referring too is a UConn athlete and not a, you know, actual real Husky.  If she has been the victim of violence or fealt threatened by an athlete, I can understand her reading too much into a logo and a quote even if I don't agree with it.

Of course, as I said, it was hard to make heads or tails of much of the writing in the letter, so I could be completely wrong in my interpretation.

I am a prosecutor, and I exclusively prosecuted domestic violence cases for a couple years. Violence towards women is a serious problem that is often ignored in our society. Rape victims are ostracized and often are judged more harshly than defendants at trial. Domestic abusers control their victims by threatening to take away or harm their kids. Many, if not most, homicides are the result of domestic violence.

I could go on, but my point is that a fucking new husky logo is not the problem. This woman is an idiot.

I'm just saying, if I had a choice between hooking up with Maryland sorority chick and UConn Husky complainer chick, I'm heading to College Park 10 time out of 10.  

I have no idea what exactly her issue with the new logo was. I can understand the rebranding being an issue if they're just trying to slap a new face on a department with some serious issues, but she completely loses me when she links all of these gender issues to a new husky face.

To comment on what I think I read, "powerful and aggressive" is just as desirable on the female side of the athletic department as it is on the mens; I guarantee Hutch and Barnes Arico aren't out recruiting players they would describe as meek and passive.

Hide ya kids, hide ya wife

Fun fact: UCONN has had three players already selected in the 2013 NFL draft. The B1G has had only four selected. Rape Huskie FTW.

slow day

Young lady has every right to her opinion.  It's a silly opinion though.

That's a good logo.  It could be a female or male husky.

Still, it's better to be a Wolverine.

I think Becca from UMD should have written that letter. It would have been Christopher Walken-esq bliss.

Reading the letter, it doesn't sound like she really objects to the logo in itself so much as she objects to the logo in what she perceives as its context. From her perspective, male violence against women is a systemic issue with UConn athletics that has gone unacknowledged by the school administration. Rebranding in the midst of this is a bit of a white washing, is what she seems to be arguing. I think her comments about the logo being aggressive and emblematic of male athletic peer culture are just rhetorical devices to try to get her point across. She wanted to discuss violence against women at UConn, and the imagery of the logo happened to provide a convenient way of doing that. At least that's how I interpret her letter. 

I think there are good reasons to disagree with her, but I think some of you are being uncharitable to her position. 

I have a wife, a daughter, a sister, and numerous female cousins who I love very much. I have a number of female friends and/or colleagues who I have a great amount of affection and respect for.

For that reason alone, my attitudes about rape boil down to this: castrate the motherfucker. Without painkillers. Yes, I know we don't do that, but that's my impulse. That's what laws and Constitutions are in place to protect against.

To equate the mere adoption of an athletic logo with active or tacit support of a rape culture is simply stupid and juvenile, and indicates a thoroughgoing misunderstanding of our cultural nuances. That's what you get with 20-something college students. I was an undergraduate in the early '70s, so I have a deep familiarity with earnest but comically naive jeremiads against popular culture.

But, subjecting her to mocking threats of rape and other kinds of abuse is equally stupid, and to the extent possible under the law, the idiots making those threats should be prosecuted.

Moral of this story: the internet is flypaper for morons.

I think she was saying they should use this as their mascot?

All I needed to see was the word "feminist" in the URL for me to not click it. 

As a wise man named The Rock once said, "Know your role.....and shut your mouth!"

Carolyn Luby sounds like a crazy person.

Breaking news: the Husky mascot has just been linked to the Lincoln assassinaton.

There probably exists a problem of entitlement with respect to student athletes at certain universities. Her scant presentation of evidence with respect to uconn doesn't really tell me that much, but it seems like this can and should be a concern on certain campuses.



That said I fail to see the connection to feminism or violence against women or the attempt to change the logo of the school. A few more English/writing classes probably would not hurt this young woman. No more than a husky logo anyway...

That happened. 

First, this is a very poorly written piece that does a terrible job of expressing coherent thoughts. As some have mentioned above, I think the author's point is largely that the university should not be spending its resources on re-branding and should instead focus on addressing serious problems in its athletic culture.

However, the reason I felt compelled to post here is that I think there might be a meaning to the last paragraph that we're not picking up on. I think her "real life Husky" line (note the capital "H") is a reference to a specific UConn athlete, and given the context probably one who assaulted/attempted to assault the author.

If that's the case, it changes the whole meaning of the piece (at least in my mind) from misguided rant to coping mechanism. I can't fault a victim of assault/sexual assault for having a knee-jerk reaction to something that reminds them of their experience, and the over-emotional, poorly presented argument in this piece reads exactly like that type of reaction.

In short, I sincerely hope that if the author of this piece IS a victim of sexual assault that she is receiving support and help in response to her letter as opposed to scorn.

i thought she was taking about animal cruelty. also, i think it looks tight

Of course the young lady's letter reveals emotional turmoil.  God bless them all, there's too much toxic stress for young people these days. 

Probably not exactly a perfectly balanced world for you or I as well.