Playboy Controversy

To the Editors of The Crimson:

During the last several! days we have been following, with amusement and concern, the Playboy Controversy as discussed in various Crimson articles and editorials. After hearing the reasons given for not printing the advertisement, we felt the Crimson had probably done a good thing. After all, the sexual exploitation of women should be stopped wherever and whenever possible.

Perhaps that's why we were puzzled to see that the Crimson, self-proclaimed champion of women's rights, had been running a rather interesting tequila advertisement. It pictures a semi-dressed buxom blonde with her tongue hanging out, and proclaims: "You'll Love My Dos Gusanos!" "Dos what?" we thought, but were informed (in small print) that dos gusanos means "two worms." How silly of us.

At any rate the ad is, no doubt, sexist. We're not supposed to like the ad or buy the tequila because of the woman's strong character or interesting personality, but because she arouses the prurient interests that lurk beneath nearly every male's soul. To run this ad is arguably worse than allowing Playboy to advertise, for the Crimson is not just indirectly promoting sexism, it's activley displaying it for anyone willing to pay twenty cents. Therefore, we would like to make a simple suggestion. Stop running the ad. It's not only an act of hypocrisy, but it's also in bad taste. David Patent '88   Rick Borovoy '88   Yongjin Im '88