Happened to come across the latest issue of the Northwestern alumni magazine (spring 2016). It has an article entitled “Shoot Yourself,” with the third letter “o” highlighted in red like a bullseye.
OK, the article IS about student selfies in the 1970s. And the project was indeed called “Shoot Yourself” back then. Still, is this an appropriate title in this day and age? The president of MSMU in Maryland resigned yesterday because he made a joking remark about “putting a glock” to the heads of underperforming students.
How about using a camera lens or something of that ilk for the “O” to signify that “shoot” references photography. The bullseye is very out of place and definitely sends the wrong message.
I have the magazine too and I’m looking at the page you refer to. It’s a red letter “O” but it’s not a bulls eye to me – it doesn’t have concentric circles inside it, which is what would make it a bulls eye for me.
I think it’s very clear that it’s talking about photos, not suicide. Above the headline are contact sheets with many photographs.
I guess I was thinking it looks kind of like a bullet hole. Does it have to be in red??? It is clear that the article is about selfies, but that is not my point. “Shoot Yourself” carries with it a subtle message of suicide IMO. The table of contents says “Shoot Yourself” in bold letters.
Well, as the text states, “That was the beginning of the long-running feature “Shoot Yourself,” which launched in the 1976 [yearbook].” So they’re only mentioning the name of something that was named 40 years ago.
But I understand your point. No one wants the magazine to appear as if it’s encouraging suicide. I’d say it was a poor choice of names 40 years ago.
Our alumni mags (undergrad, law school, H’s undergrad and kids’ undergrad) tend to have very no controversial articles but rather focus on updates about what great things alumni are doing. I don’t thing the editor used great discretion and taste by using that title, especially in light of gun violence and mental health concerns. There are numerous clever and interesting ways to write about selfies that would not raise ire and potential pain, imho (tho I haven’t seen this particular mag).
Poor choice. Nowadays, writers and editors must be hyper-sensitive to such language decisions. One has to be extremely careful and responsible with those choices now. No excuses anymore, it seems.
S’s high school classmate was a student at NU who took his own life last year. I hope his family, and families of other NU students who committed suicide don’t see that issue.
My own college had a photo contest called “shoot yourself” back in the 80’s. I think it was for club yearbook photos. I recall one winner was the geology club–their photo was a box of rocks labeled with club members’ names.
I had this issue on my nightstand and hadn’t opened it.
Honestly, it doesn’t look like a bullseye, bullet hole or target in the least. There are no crosshairs, and a target typically has several concentric circles like the retailer logo. It’s simply the words Shoot Yourself in all caps.and the o in Yourself is in red. It’s surrounded by strips of various casual / candid shots, similar to how a bunch of negatives would look.
Midwestdad, are you an NU alum? Shoot Yourself was a “thing” on campus. There was a little remote control thingy you could operate to take a selfie (of course that word wasn’t invented at the time). Students would line up to do it, often being creative in costumes and poses, and you always hoped the yearbook picked your photo.
The rest of the article and the photos are clearly about photography. And they are clearly about “shooting yourself” because you can see the cable that the students are squeezing to trigger the camera. It is about as literal as can be.
I’m very sensitive to suicide messages because I’ve been personally impacted, but I think you’re making much ado about nothing. I bet every professional photography magazine uses the term “shoot…” in headlines.
“How about using a camera lens or something of that ilk for the “O” to signify that “shoot” references photography. The bullseye is very out of place and definitely sends the wrong message.”
It’s not a bullseye. It’s just the letter O. It’s abundantly clear that the article is about photography and that “shoot” is being used to mean “shoot a roll of film.”
I seem to remember Shoot Yourself as sort of a pun on Suit Yourself.
Not to nitpick but it is a target that has concentric circles, not a bullseye. A bullseye is the point that is in the middle. In this case, it is a black dot surrounded by a red “o”, a different color from all of the other letters. The red “o” is positioned directly above the forehead of the largest photo in the article, the only photo in which a person holds the camera release to her head in the same position that someone would hold a revolver to her head.
We can agree to disagree, PG, as we often do. But as someone who was profoundly affected by a suicide as well, 2 years ago, my personal reaction is that the subliminal message conveyed here is due to either a profoundly thoughtless, dark “joke,” or a layout editor who was asleep at the wheel. Maybe no one else will find it disturbing. I did.
To clarify for others, it’s not really a black dot per se. The page background is black and the words are white on the black background and the O is in red font. It’s a pretty blah, uninspired graphic layout IMO,
Midwestdad, my bio dad committed suicide (though not by gun). I’m very sorry for your loss.