To some, Delta Tau Delta (DTD)'s rush poster was simply an advertisement promoting the fraternity's fall recruitment events. But to the Tufts Feminist Alliance (TFA) and others, the poster promoted something else entirely: violence towards women, unhealthy body image, and "rape culture."
The flier, which borrowed an image from Maxim magazine, features a head-to-waist shot of actress Jamie Pressley wearing a black bra with one strap pulled off. "Rush DTD," it says next to Pressley, who is staring into the camera.
The poster was approved by the Office of Student Activities.
TFA and DTD squared off last Thursday at a two-hour panel forum about images of women in advertising. Representatives from the two groups discussed whether these images contribute to violence against women, and took questions from a crowd of 100 students gathered in Hotung Caf?©. While TFA speakers said the ad objectifies women and reinforces stereotypes of unnatural body images, DTD brothers argued that the image served as a good attention-getting device.
"The sole reason for this poster was to attract eyes and attract attention," said junior Daniel Kramer, a DTD panelist. "It was not meant to offend anybody or make anybody feel scared."
TFA members argued that despite the brothers' intentions, the fraternity should not have used the advertisement. DTD should "look at what their actions are really doing to people on this campus," said sophomore Caroline Davis, a TFA panelist who said the ad made her feel unsafe. "If we continue to use women as objects, then you are continually perpetuating violence."
The Dean of Students Office called the forum a "community conversation" - an event typically held in response to controversies that do not involve violations of Tufts' disciplinary policies. Dean of Students Bruce Reitman, who moderated the forum, said that such dialogues generally occur once or twice a year.
At the forum, TFA members presented a poster of a scantily clad woman put out by the Thai Club earlier this year. The poster, which advertised a general interest meeting, included the phrase, "You won't be disappointed." After TFA objected to the ad, the club printed an apology in the Daily.
TFA members approached DTD about the poster at a rush event last month. The members were initially welcomed, but were asked to leave when they made clear their intention to have a serious discussion about the poster. DTD brothers called the Tufts University Police Department, which ejected the TFA representatives.
TFA panelists and speakers said images portraying women as objects, not humans, lead to eating disorders and violence against women. Speakers said repeatedly that they took offense to the poster, but Kramer countered, saying some of TFA's accusations were themselves offensive.
"I have felt a bit attacked," he said, before quoting from a TFA handout at the forum. "I took offense to this. [The poster] was not intended to 'present women as sexual objects, ready for sex and rape at men's leisure.'"
DTD panelist Andrew Potts said the model would not have consented to being photographed if she thought the image would harm women. "If she thought her image would be destructive to women all over the world, she wouldn't have done it," Potts said.
But because the image promotes an ideal of beauty, Monnin said, it causes low self-esteem. "We have images of ideal beauty, we know we don't look like them," she said. "We know what is expected of us and images like this cause women to have eating disorders."
Panelist Sam Dangremond, editor-in-chief of The Primary Source, said that though TFA could argue that eating disorders were related to this type of photograph, the images do not relate to violence. "It comes down to interpretation," he said.
TFA was supportive of senior Iris Halpern's sexual harassment complaint filed against the Source earlier this year. Although the Committee on Student Life dropped the complaint and the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate voted down a resolution condemning the Source material, TFA members continue to lobby on her behalf.
On Thursday, TFA members distributed a flier entitled "Warning: The Primary Source is Violent Towards Women," which reiterated Halpern's case. Panelists and speakers did not directly reference the complaint, however, after Reitman warned that the event was "not a forum to discuss everything that is occurring."
Halpern spoke later in the discussion, addressing Dangremond and the DTD panelists. Responding to Kramer, who said the poster was meant to attract attention, Halpern argued that the ad was noticed because it "sold" sex. "I don't think it's fair to sell your fraternity through images of sexual objects," she said. "It is about gender and sex or you would have not used that image to sell your frat."
But a speaker from DTD argued that since the poster does not include any text related to the image - as did the Thai Club poster - the interpretation lies with the viewer. "It's just the poster," he said. "No interpretation, no slogan, no insinuation. It's purely on the viewer."
An audience member, junior Eric Mitton, asked whether the offense some students took with this ad matched the offense students took with TTLGBC "Coming Out Day" chalkings from two years ago. Speakers who agreed with DTD said the chalkings, some of which were highly sexual, were equally offensive.
TFA Co-Chair Abby Moffat, who made an unsuccessful bid for a sophomore Senate seat last week, said the chalkings were intentionally lewd and, unlike the DTD poster, did not make students feel unsafe. "None of the TTLGBC chalkings made anyone feel unsafe," she said. "The point was to make people feel uncomfortable."
Mitton, however, spoke again, arguing that the theory that images cause violence is unproven and that the real contention is whether the poster offended students. "You can't find a single student who isn't offended by the Primary Source or Radix," he said. "It all comes down to offense... at Tufts, you have that choice."
At the forum's close, Reitman said he hopes the groups will consider their actions and methods of advertising more closely during the next rush season. "Do I think that anyone's leaving here with a different opinion - probably not," he said. The forum, he said, "has the potential of having people understand the impact of what is done."
