Originally posted September 28 at 2:35 p.m. Updated September 29 at 2:13 p.m. with comment from the Union Weekly's editor.
It looks like it's the season for local college papers to ingnite politically correct controversies. Yesterday, we mentioned that Cal State Fullerton's Daily Titan
has caught flak for using the term “illegal immigrant.” Today, we bring news of a
Cal State Long Beach paper in trouble for making a couple lil boderline rape jokes.
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CSULB's Daily 49er ran an item on Friday about a student-government senator objecting to an article published in the campus's irreverent, deliciously profane Union Weekly. The offending article: “How To Get Laid: A Girls' Guide For Guys.” One choice section, highlighted in the Daily 49er:
“When you get to her place just get to the fucking no dilly dallying, you don't want to give her time to really think about it. Don't be afraid to be aggressive.”
The piece, which is available through Google caching here or as it was laid (ha) out here, is filled with plenty of other tidbits about how to throw “a one time pants party” and accrue “couple o' fuck buddies” for once-weekly “pillaging.” However, it's also got lines like “Don't do anything you'd seriously regret later; I know you have a conscience in there somewhere.”
In short, it's not far from the sort of thing you'd expect college students to write all the time if most of them weren't worried about their grandmas and future employers having their names on Google alert. Though the “don't give her time to think about it” thing is kinda sorta fucked up.
Associated Students, Inc., Senator
Roxanna Gracia has raised objections. During a senate meeting, she called the article “offensive” and said she plans on writing a resolution condemning the Union, according to the 49er.
As for Union editor-in-chief Kevin O'Brien, who has been the target of a petition calling for his removal from the Union's leadership? “I am more worried about an Australian box fish than I am about a resolution,” he told the campus's daily newspaper.
Update, 2:13, Sept. 29: Misquote alert. It was an Australian box jellyfish that O'Brien was referring to, he told us over the phone this morning.
He says he and his staff were surprised by the controversy over the “How to Get Laid” article, but they don't think they're likely to be shut down.
“The Union Weekly is only here to propagate student opinion,” O'Brien said. “And that student opinion is not always going to be insightful, or correct, or politically correct, or even clear. But it's always going to be honest or earnest. If sometimes that upsets people or scares people, I think that's okay. I think it's important that we discuss these topics openly and earnestly, and I think it would be a tragedy if people felt they couldn't use their right to free speech for fear of hurting people's feelings, because, in the long run, the damage will be far greater.”
