The One About...: The One About College Students, This Is What Weighs Heaviest On Your Minds?

Thursday, April 23, 2009

The One About College Students, This Is What Weighs Heaviest On Your Minds?

I currently live in a college town. Morgantown, West Virginia, which is home to West Virginia University to be precise. And it's kind of fun. One of the advantages of a college town is you get a lot of the growth and amenities of a larger city, but on a smaller more personal scale. Plus it can be fun observing the students and the way that they are so very passionate about things that ultimately don't matter. Like the competition for homecoming King and Queen. They put up ads and stand on street corners proselytizing, and it's all a bit silly, but hey you're only young once right.

Recently though there has been something that a lot of both students and WVU football fans seem all het up about, that honestly makes me wish they'd find something better to do with all that passion.

Rebecca Durst officially started as West Virginia University’s new Mountaineer when she fired the rifle at the Gold-Blue Spring Football Game at Milan Puskar Stadium Saturday.

But some students and fans are still taking shots at her role in a traditionally male position.

Image via Wikipedia
The Facebook group “WVU students against beardless mountaineers” has gained more than 1,800 members, and new groups such as “If Rebecca Durst can grow and maintain a full beard, I’ll fully support her” and “Screw you Rebecca Durst” currently have between 20 and 40 members.

“I just think that other schools will make fun of us for having a girl mascot,” said Todd Gutta, a sophomore pre-political science major and member of one of the Facebook groups.

Gutta believes the Mountaineer should have a beard. He added that rival schools like the University of Pittsburgh will definitely make fun of a female Mountaineer.

Mike Baldy, a sophomore, pre-physical education major and Facebook group member, said that he doesn’t like having a female Mountaineer and would rather have both a male and female mascot.

“Last time we had a girl, it didn’t go well,” Baldy said.

When Natalie Tennant was Mountaineer, she was booed and chided for her sex.

Now, she is West Virginia’s Secretary of the State.

Senior Industrial Engineering major and Facebook group member, Brian Combs, said that the Mountaineer mascot is a male position.

Wow! How stunningly sexist and juvenile. Your objection to there being a female as the mascot is that other schools might "make fun" of your school? Which school was that again? West Weiner Pre Kindergarten?

Seriously, in this day and age, the idea that not only would people be that bothered by a female in what had previously been for no reason other than tradition a male, but that they would be willing to not only publicly air such sentiments but to enshrine them on Facebook, is ludicrous and chilling at the same time.

Personally, I think that the fact that the Mountaineers have a female in the role of mascot is great, and I am extremely proud of this young lady and her unflappability in the face of juvenile hostility.

Hopefully the next Mountaineer will be an openly gay male. I'd love to see the pretzel logic they come up with for that one. After all he'll have a beard and that's what that lot says counts most, right?

Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!

The following resources were used in the creation of this article:

From The Daily Athenaeum;
The Tale of No Beard