DM ad is offensive to women

Many members of the university community have phoned and e-mailed the Sarah Isom Center to express their displeasure with an advertisement that appeared in The Daily Mississippian on March 30. The ad was for www.whipped.com -- a Web site touted as "more raunchy fun than a barrel of sex toys."

Clearly the ad poses some problems. It both denigrates and objectifies women, and it is also a direct repudiation of the thoughtful and enlightened stance that The DM's editorial board has taken toward gender issues throughout this academic year.

At the very least, it causes many of us to wonder whether or not The DM has any standard by which it judges the advertisements it chooses to print. Will it accept all ads under any circumstance? Will it reject any ads that mock or humiliate anyone on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation? Are there any instances when the newspaper will choose to reject an ad because it is offensive in nature?

These are complicated issues, and we recognize that they are not easy to resolve. Nevertheless, we would like to urge the staff of this year's DM to address these issues in a considerate and thoughtful manner.

The Sarah Isom Center Steering Committee:

Sheila Skemp, Susan Grayzel, Deborah Barker, Laurie Cozad, Scottie Hargrove, Ted Ownby, Jay Watson, Kirsten Dellinger, Debra Young, Debra Cohen, Karla Thomas, Aileen Ajootian