- The Record Archives
- Volume CXVIII, No. XXI - November 17, 2005 - news
Johnnies show their love for CSB
CSB students' class project exposes gender stereotypes by dressing Johnnies in CSB shirts
The Record
Many men on campus have recently sported pink T-shirts expressing their love for St. Ben's.
The T-shirts, which have "I [heart] CSB" written on them, were distributed to 100 Johnnies as part of a class project.
Senior Katy Pfannenstein and juniors Kristina Kelly and Teresa Crater organized the project and purchase of the pink T-shirts.
They asked Johnnies to wear the shirts around campus for two days as part of a service learning project for their "Gender and Communication" class.
"The point of the project was to promote awareness of the stereotypes ingrained into our norms," Kelly said. "It's OK to wear CSB clothes without being less of a man simply because of wearing a woman's name."
Pfannenstein said that men are supposed to be masculine according to these stereotypes.
"Men represent power and strength versus being sensitive, caring and passive," Pfannenstein said.
That stereotype was challenged on Monday as a group of Johnnies wore their shirts.
Participants said they received many reactions.
"I got a lot of strange looks from a lot of guys," said senior Jason Curry, who wore one of the pink T-shirts. "I would presume that people would look twice; it's strange for someone to see a man in pastels."
Junior Michael McKeever even received comments from the female cashiers at Sexton about the T-shirt.
"They said that it takes a real man to wear a pink shirt," McKeever said. "It was nice for them to see so many guys wearing pink shirts and being confident wearing them."
The T-shirts were free for the Johnnies who participated in this project.
The funding came from the support of Jason Laker and SJU.
"I see it as my responsibility to try to invest in students' ideas, particularly ones that might benefit the community," Laker said. "This was something that promoted a more seamless and equitable relationship between the two schools — it seemed in the interest of both the SJU and CSB students." Organizers said they might sell the shirts to students.
Johnnies will also wear the shirts on today.