To call a misunderstanding a misunderstanding

In Friday’s tuition editorial (Next idea, please: Tuition hike shows the administration’s lack of ingenuity or willingness to take personal cuts), the editorial board used the phrase “It’s time to call a spade to spade.” We were later informed that “spade” can be a derogatory term for blacks.

According to Wikipedia.org, the term “spade” was used mostly in the 1970s to connote a black person. The Post had no intention of using it in this sense. Associate Editor Justin Thompson wrote the editorial using a common figure of speech, completely unaware of the racist connotation.

Although we haven’t received any official letters about the incident, I received an e-mail and also heard that students and professors have been talking about it in class.

It’s impossible for Post employees to know all of the wrong connotations of phrases, but it is embarrassing when we mess up nonetheless. If someone thought we used the phrase “spade” purposely, it would have looked appalling, particularly because it came right after we referred to our first black president, an accomplishment for which we congratulate Ohio University. It’s clear that The Post did not mean to imply any type of racial reference; we were simply using a figure of speech that is easily misconstrued. As with many other things, we will try to be more careful in the future.

The term “to call a spade a spade” reminded me of the expression “rule of thumb,” which, while common in all language, actually is a sexist expression. “Rule of thumb,” according to some scholars, was derived from a rule that men can beat their wives with a stick no larger than a thumb.

It is the responsibility of the editor to be aware of these types of expressions, and yet, mistakes are made with idioms and word choices all the time. This quarter, we have had a few problems with this in The Post (see my previous post on being politically correct).

Let’s face it: Our newsroom is mostly white kids. We lack the cultural diversity to always see the various connotations. This lack of diversity is something we hope to change on the inside of The Post, in the hopes that it will better improve our outer presentation.

Don't think pink

I suggested a moratorium on the color pink.

So maybe it is a sexy, attention-grabbing color. It is the color of my favorite drink, and I recently enjoyed a theme party based on the color. But it seems to be the only color we use when we do a story about females.

I’m referring, of course, to The Verve centerpiece on Thursday. When I opened the paper, I gasped. The label head, in bright pink curvy letters, read “Ladies stay connected.” I closed the paper in shock. I knew it was supposed to be an article about women’s groups and feminist activism on campus. And yet, what surrounded a photo of the most recent Take Back the Night March? Doilies. We might as well have put kitchen utensils or a large picture of Phyllis Schlafly. (The story is Local women’s groups band together, but the package is only visible on the pdf, which you can click on from this page.)

Of course, if the story was about a new surge in homemaking, doilies might be appropriate. But the story, written by Anna Sudar, was a feature about women’s groups, and we belittled them with stereotypes.

For last week's Friday Focus, we did a centerpiece about female rock stars (When ladies rock the house), and used a large pink guitar pick that one person told me was reminiscent of the female version phallic. It turns out, Amy Lauer, design editor, who did this design, actually only picked the pink guitar pick because it was at the right angle. Its pinkness was a coincidence.

This story (also by Sudar), although I understood some points about its stereotypical-seeming design, was still able to express a cool point. Even the word ladies (which is actually not Associated Press style at all), was something we managed to pull off. I heard good reviews from people about the story. But the repeat of the word "ladies" again last Thursday was not a good move, and definitely looked a little ignorant on our part. As both a women’s studies and journalism student, I tend to get worked up about how newspapers portray gender. This time, I found that it was a buzz with a lot of people and that most of the newsroom was turned off by the display. As one person told me, it reminded him of a Victoria’s Secret commercial (think of all of the sweatpants with “pink” written on the rear).

I can’t blame any one person for our overtones of sexism or gender stereotyping. It is just as much the fault of the editors before and after The Verve was designed as it is the designer's fault. My intention is not to scold anyone. We as editors obviously should take the most blame for not overseeing how design and writing is conceptualized together. I also know that this was a stand-in Verve that lacked planning.

Unfortunately, even large misconceptions slip through the cracks. The bottom line is, we’re students. While we’re trying to fix a comma, we might miss that fact that a package is not appropriate. Perhaps when I first started at The Post, I didn’t even have the cultural knowledge to notice a gender stereotype if it hit me in the face with an apron.

The good news: Thursday’s blunder has spawned a new iniative for diversity (we’re adopting the popular Ohio University buzz word!) at The Post. One thing that is included is trying to rid the newsroom of gender stereotypes — both in-house and on our paper. We can call it Vision Post or something.