<p>I came across this article about special “shout out” sections that are run once per semester in a college magazine at Penn. There’s not a lot of detail here but it seems most of the comments are mean-spirited and gross - and make for extremely popular reading material on campus. It’s kind of like juicycampus.com in print…and without the names (although it seems it’s pretty easy to figure out who’s who).
Do you think the administration should do anything to discourage or prohibit this type of product? It made me angry just reading about it…but I’m not sure what anyone could do about it. Maybe it’s just a realistic reflection of how mean spirited college kids can be… </p>
<p>Ugh! I hate stuff like this! I looked at Juicy Campus before it was shut down and it was like a horror movie. I’m all for humor, but humor is different than public humiliation.</p>
<p>I definitely find this distasteful. I never read juicy campus but read about it and was delighted when it went belly up. Posting nasty things about people is not acceptable and is so open to abuse. It is just a form of bullying - and even more cowardly than face to face bullying when done under the cover of anonymity. I remember being worried at the time about juicy campus because my daughter had a mean spirited ex who was stalking her and I could just imagine him posting something nasty about her. I must admit I smiled when I saw the thing in the article about the one guy losing a job because of his involvement in the site that spread nasty rumors about people. I hope the courts tell him where to put his lawsuit.</p>
<p>I have never liked mean spirited humor and cringe at people being humiliated. In a movie if I know someone is about to be humiliated or embarrassed I have to go to the rest room and with TV I will change channels and come back once a suitable period has elapsed. There is definitely a mean spirited trend in in what passes for humor lately. I don’t know if the media reflects the generation or the generation is reflecting the media.</p>
<p>You’re lucky you never looked at Juicy Campus, because it was grotesque and deeply disturbing. I live in a college town, and when I looked at it I saw a post about a sorority pledge who’d been out with a group and was incoherently drunk at a campus pizza place. She had an accident in her pants, and was so out of it that she didn’t know and had to be basically carried home. I doubt she could even remember, and yet I’m sure she had to live with the humiliation on a daily basis.</p>
<p>I don’t know…I’m guessing that students don’t complain because there are no names listed. So you really can’t claim slander or harrassment if it you’re not identified personally. </p>
<p>Still…I think it’s awful. The students defend it by saying that it’s just how kids deal with things these days - and that it’s “real.” I think taking the step of putting it in a publication further encourages this behavior and blesses it as OK. I can’t say I’d be proud to be a Penn student…</p>
<p>The Penn students are proud of it. I think it’s a generation gap thing- I sure don’t get the appeal, but I assure you that the Penn kids eat it up. Fortunately it’s just once a year. The rest of the year they can do it in a non-publication format.</p>
<p>A few of the shoutouts are really tacky and crude and occasionally even semi- identifying. Many kids do find those objectionable. This is to do with the decisions of the editorial board of the DP. And since they are completely independent in terms of funding and administration, nothing the school can say about it. Just like with JuicyCampus, sponsors would have to object and their bottom line would have to be affected.</p>
<p>Never saw JuicyCampus, but happy to hear it is no longer in business.</p>
<p>As to shout outs, in particular, the nasty ones – why do it? I can imagine these insensitive remarks could really hurt some people. </p>
<p>From the article – “While it’s human nature to enjoy gossip, Citron said, the Web’s anonymity gives people license, even encouragement, to be truly poisonous.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know…I’m guessing that students don’t complain because there are no names listed. So you really can’t claim slander or harrassment if it you’re not identified personally”</p>
<p>That’s a legal standard. You could certainly complain to the campus newspaper about an entry that didn’t rise to the level of libel or harassment.</p>
<p>I’m sad to say that I don’t think this problem (i.e. the taste level of the DP not being up to the standard of its excellent reporting) is generational. A friend of mine wrote a piece for 34th Street back in the 90s, about being a curvy woman uncomfortable with the stares in the Penn gym. Street ran it with a picture of a skinny woman and the caption “[author’s name] after breast deflation.” Charming.</p>
<p>That’s horrible! It’s bad enough to be publicly called out and humiliated for stupid behavior–like losing control of your bowels in a pizza place–but to be ridiculed for an illness is horrific.</p>