More than a T-Shirt

Like nylon tights and oversized T-shirts with V-necks tied at the waist, political correctness is a thing of the past. It has, of late, come to acquire a reputation as a marker of prudishness, self-importance and over-sensitivity. While from time to time this reputation is well earned, it is truly disheartening to see examples of offensive and hurtful comments disregarded because of a general distaste for matters of PC.

To complain about a T-shirt that says “Yale sucks, Jeter swallows,” will undoubtedly elicit dismissive responses —after all, can’t people take a joke? But this has to be said.

At the most superficial level, yes, “Yale sucks, Jeter swallows,” is just another light-hearted way of saying, “I dislike both Yale and Jeter.” Nevertheless, the underlying message is clear: sucking and swallowing, or performing oral sex on men, is a degrading act, and to do so is synonymous with inferiority. This shirt is “funny” only because it is understood that to be accused of being gay, to be accused of being womanly, is to be shamed.

There is no doubt in my mind that the creators of this T-shirt did not intend to send a homophobic or sexist message. But that is precisely what they did.

While it is true that insults such as “suck” and “swallow” have been incorporated into everyday speech to the point where, in certain contexts, their origin meaning is lost. This is not one of those contexts. The reference to oral sex rings loud and clear. How much more explicitly homophobic must a slogan be before it is no longer acceptable. What about “Yale and Jeter are cock-suckers,” or “Yale and Jeter are fags”—does everyone agree that those are insulting?

Nor can we forget that these insults are not isolated. Expressions such as “that’s so gay,” “stop being a fag,” or “don’t be a girl,” are ubiquitous. In fact, just wait ’til a few weeks before the Harvard-Yale game and you’ll be sure to see a bevy of other shirts with similar implications. Together, these instances of hidden homophobia and sexism for the most part ignored create an unwelcoming environment for those whose expense they’re at. Just ask a Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender (BGLT) friend, and she/he will tell you that when she/he was coming out, it didn’t take any explicit explanations for her/him to figure that being BGLT in the eyes of society is unequivocally bad. Everyday conversation makes it all too clear.

Making campus a safe space for everyone should not just be the priority of those for whom it is not a safe space. This is everyone’s responsibility, and student groups should not attempt to justify the use of insulting or hurtful language—they should actively avoid it. If that means being PC, then by all means, let us be PC.

Mischa A. Feldstein ’07, a Crimson editorial editor, is a social studies concentrator in Mather House.