On the Firing of the Ohio State Marching Band Director

For the last three years, I have been proud to call Ohio State my home. This week, as I prepare to enter my senior year at OSU, I have been surrounded by articles and opinions concerning the recent firing of the marching band director Jonathan Waters after a two-month investigation revealed a “culture of sexualization” and sexual harassment in the band. As I have read the report and listened as various students, staff, and alumni shared their opinions, I have, naturally, drawn my own conclusions and formed my own opinion, an opinion that, until now, I have been hesitant to share publicly, but I feel I must say that I believe the university made the right decision in firing Waters.

I am disappointed at the loss of such talent from our university, but I applaud the university administrators and President Michael Drake for taking substantial action to end a culture of sexual harassment in the band. I do not envy President Drake for the task of firing a wildly popular band director in his first weeks as the president of the university, but I support him wholeheartedly in his decision to do so.

I stand 100% behind Ohio State administrators and President Drake. At a time when over 50 colleges and universities, including Ohio State, are under investigation by the Department of Education for compliance with Title IX, it is clear that we live in a culture of complacency regarding sexual harassment and assault on college campuses. By taking action to curb a hostile environment in the marching band, Ohio State has bravely started to fight that culture of complacency on its own campus. Actions (and inactions) must have consequences when it comes to sexual harassment and hostile environments. While it is unfortunate that Waters had only two years to reverse the culture of sexual harassment in the band, his firing was a necessary consequence of both his own lack of appropriate action and the band members’ inappropriate behavior.

I’ve heard or read repeatedly that some or most band members didn’t have a problem with the culture of the band, but this is still not an excuse for band staff ignoring the complaints of those who did have a problem. Title IX was not designed to protect the vocal majority, but rather to protect the silent minority. In this case, the law did just that as it protected the students for whom the behaviors outlined in the report did create a hostile environment. Those students may have been afraid to speak out against band traditions in the face of the many students who perpetuated the traditions. It doesn’t matter if 1 or 100 people had a problem with the behaviors going on in the band; Title IX applies regardless. Even if most members had no problem with the culture of the band that does not make it acceptable. What is popular is not always what is right, and creating a hostile environment simply isn’t right.

After witnessing firsthand the 2011 football season and a devastating loss to That Team Up North, I can confidently tell you that the deep sense of Buckeye pride associated with Ohio State is about so much more than what happens in Ohio Stadium on Saturdays in the fall. Just as we do not live and die by our football record, we will not live and die by the number of walking dinosaurs the band creates. Certainly, I, along with many others, have enjoyed the success of both the band and the football team in the last year, but their successes and failures do not define my own pride in the wonderful community I am so privileged to be a part of. Just as the football team survived the loss of Coach Tressel, the band will survive the loss of Director Waters. If they have a weaker year because of it, then so be it. Fans will cheer just as loudly for TBDBITL as they would any other year. As for me, I am as proud as ever to be a Buckeye.

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I'm excited to announce that Consulting Feminist is making the leap to Twitter. Check it out and follow at: @ConsultingFmnst.

By using Twitter I hope to build readership for the blog and share more frequent thoughts about women in the media and feminism that don't necessarily warrant a whole blog post.

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I Love (and Sort of Hate) the New "You & I" and "Try" Videos

I have to admit that I’ve watched John Legend’s “You & I” video and Colbie Caillat’s “Try” video a few times [read: about a hundred.] Legend’s video features a series of many women staring in the camera as if it is a mirror and occasionally fixing something about their appearance. 

Caillat’s video is similar in that it features a series of women singing and slowly removing layers of their make-up and hairdressing.

Everyone seems to love these videos and their underlying message of body-positivity and I would count myself among that number. I love that these videos and artists are acknowledging the immense pressure put on women to look a certain way. I also love the true diversity of the women in the videos, particularly Legend’s video which includes cancer survivors, a girl with Down’s syndrome, and trans actress Laverne Cox. Additionally, the videos feel very genuine. I believe that the artists believe in what they are singing about. I really don’t think that either video is faux feminism used as a marketing ploy. John Legend and Colbie Caillat are the real deal and, after watching the videos, it’s hard not to get their message: All women are beautiful as we are.

So why do I hate the way these videos make me feel, just a little? Well, even though I love the genuine sentiment of body-positivity and the diversity of the women included, I see a problem in the videos: The women are still reduced to simply their bodies, their physical appearance. And women are so much more than that. I want songs and music videos to reflect that. Forget “you don’t know you’re beautiful” What about you don’t know you’re smart, articulate, important, wise, creative, funny, brilliant?

Beauty is only skin deep, but confidence is not, so if you want to build confident women tell us and show us that we are kind and intelligent and witty and innovative and wonderful. Sing to us about how we are good at math, how we are talented artists, how we are masterful poets, and how we are excellent leaders. Tell us we are beautiful, but also tell us we are powerful and unique and hilarious. Compliment our outfits, but also compliment our work.

These videos are obviously a huge step forward from videos like the infamous “Blurred Lines” video where women are just overly-sexualized props, but I find myself still hoping for more from the music industry. Women are so much more than images of our faces, with or without make-up. We are fully fleshed out human beings with talents, dreams, ambitions, and flaws. Please, sing about that.

Could Television Be the Medium for Female Super Heroes?

I started to get into the super hero genre last year after seeing my first episode of the CW’s Arrow. It’s become a personal favorite despite some of the flaws I addressed here. After binge watching Arrow over the summer I bought myself a ticket on the comic book hero bandwagon and hopped on. In the fall, I expanded my viewership to Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, which remains my current obsession. I’m also not ashamed to say that I watched all nine Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in the span of one week, after all what else was I going to do during finals week?

Given my newfound love for classic super heroes (and super spies) and old love for the medium of television, it goes without saying that I am thrilled at the expanding super hero market on the small screen. During the upcoming TV season, three new shows pertaining to the worlds of our favorite classic super heroes will premiere on major networks: Fox’s Gotham, the CW’s Flash, and ABC’s Agent Carter. Gotham is set in Batman’s hometown and takes place before Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, telling to story of two male police detectives. Flash is a more traditional take on the super hero genre centering around Barry Allen aka Flash. It looks like it will be comparable to Arrow in this way; Flash is in fact a spinoff of that show. Finally, Agent Carter surrounds the life of Agent Peggy Carter, Captain America’s love interest, after World War II and is set to premiere in January. It’s likely to give us more background on SHIELD in the organization’s early days.

Of course, Agent Carter stands out among the other super hero genre shows not only because of it’s late premiere, but because of it’s female lead. Out of the five genre shows that will grace our television screens next season, Agent Carter is the only one that can make this claim. While SHIELD has a strong ensemble cast that is equally male and female, it would be easy to argue that the lead is Agent Phil Coulson, not surprisingly a man.

My regular readers might expect that I’m dismayed at the lack of female leads in these upcoming shows. And they would be right. But I’m also hopeful that television will prove to be a friendlier medium for female super heroes and comic book characters than film has. I often lament the lack of a Black Widow movie or a Wonder Woman feature film. I’m genuinely hopeful that Agent Carter will do well and that all super hero and comic book genre shows will continue to do well on television. Ideally it will clear a path for more female lead characters in such shows and perhaps will provide that final push for studio execs to invest in a movie about one of our favorite female heroines.

Any female super hero or super spy faces a tough battle to mount this spectacular challenge. Geek-ery, especially the world of comics, remains a very male pursuit, or so the powers that be would have you think. While the number of female fans is ever expanding, content that caters to them is not expanding at the same rate. There are more female super hero and comic book fans, but not that many more female characters and female fans often express discomfort in fan spaces like comic book stores, online forums, and conventions. The offensive “fake geek girl” meme remains a problem as does sexual harassment. Until the comic book and super hero fan base fully embraces female fans, it seems unlikely that it will embrace female heroes. Furthermore, movie and television executives are still reticent to producing female-centric films and shows because of the age-old believe that movies about women just don’t do as well despite the recent success of movies like Maleficent, The Fault in Our Stars, and Frozen and television shows like Girls and Broad City. The archaic idea will hopefully wane in the face of stars like Melissa McCarthy and Angelina Jolie who are opening box offices at much higher numbers than Tom Cruise currently is.

Between the relentless march of female progress at the box office, and at the Emmys, and the expanding genre of super hero television shows, female super heroes may still have their day. Maybe it will be on television, or perhaps television will spur movement on the film front. Either way, I can only hope that one day I’ll be able to tell people Black Widow is my favorite super hero or super spy without being asked who she is.