MRC's "COM(MAN)D" t-shirt slogan incites sexist views

By Jennifer Luo     3/12/09 7:00pm

The Hanszen College Men's Resource Center (MRC) has been selling "MAN" shirts both to raise campus awareness and to raise funds for its Hu(man)ity Campaign to help "young men in the Fifth Ward Enrichment program become responsible adults and productive members of the community." I thought it a perfect example of the kind of socially conscious civic engagement projects Rice students should engage in - that is, until I saw a shirt with the slogan "COM(MAN)D" with the word "man" displayed in a larger font and bracketed within the whole word.Understandably, the MRC was probably trying to make a statement by using funny or enticing slogans as part of its campaign. Most of the slogans are indeed so, such as "WO(MAN)," "(MAN)GO" and "BRO(MAN)CE," but this particular slogan, "COM(MAN)D," is particularly offensive and potentially misleading.

"Command" is a word that connotes power, control, force and dominance. This meaning is obvious in every dictionary definition of the word. One cannot command without being obeyed. "Command" and "obey" form a basic binary opposition, just like "male" and "female." If a man "commands," then a man cannot "obey," which leaves anything that is not man to "obey."

Alas, what cannot be man? Woman. One potential argument is that the use of "man" is sexless here, which is what I had thought originally. But given the context of the people who created the shirts, in addition to the goal of helping underprivileged young men in Houston, it becomes clear that the usage of "man" takes on a gendered meaning. The concept of dichotomy here therefore becomes hierarchical in terms of gender.

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By emphasizing the noun "man" in such a strong word, this slogan exudes a sexist view of the world in which one gender is consistently associated with certain characteristics, either negative or positive. It sends a message that is not constructive to gender equality. In associating "command" with one gender, this slogan primes the viewer to associate certain qualities and positions with the male gender. In doing so draws on the chauvinistic notion that men should command while women should obey.

Some may argue that if the Women's Resource Center (WRC) can give out shirts promoting feminism, then the Men's Resource Center can give out shirts that empower men. But the nature of the messages promoted by the WRC is completely different from the nature of the messages promoted by the MRC. Shirts from the WRC say, "This is What a Feminist Looks Like" or "I say the 'F' word, Feminism." This message is fundamentally different from one that says "COM(MAN)D." Here, the shirts are saying that feminism is about gender equality.

Contrary to the popular stereotype of a feminist being a shrieking man-hater, a feminist is someone who believes in and actively promotes gender equality, the notion that women and men are equally competent and equally capable of success, command and performance. But the implied meaning of "COM(MAN)D" does not promote this message of equality. Rather, it promotes the superiority of one sex over another by attaching certain values to a particular gender. Furthermore, the very notion it promotes, that men should command and thus control anything that's not men, i.e. women, is an extremely pervasive and oppressive expectation that our society has only recently begun to break from, starting with the feminist revolution in the 1960s.

Some might argue that sexism does not exist anymore, so slogans like "COM(MAN)D" are simply funny. I have two things to say to these people.

Firstly, sexism is still present in our society, but in less overtly obvious forms. It can operate on a psychological level when a professor consistently treats more male students' comments with greater attention but disdains female students' comments with less attention and sometimes even a jovial, nochalant attitude. It can also operate on a sociological level when the media overwhelmingly pokes fun at a female Democrat presidential candidate for being too "manly" and "aggressive."

The fact that a feminist revolution has already taken place does not mean gender inequality no longer exists, even in the United States. A few decades may seem like a long time for our generation, but it's only a blink in the thousands of years of human civilization.

Secondly, some of the shirts are indeed funny such as "BRO(MAN)CE," but there is nothing witty or zany about a shirt that says "COM(MAN)D." If anything, the only possibly funny comment you can make about it is how much it exemplifies the stereotype of the overinflated male ego, often a manifestation of deep-rooted insecurity toward women. But the problem then becomes how likely people will be to recognize this kind of self-derogatory humor. Not very likely unless it is pointed out.

Furthermore, people who already have conscious or unconscious prejudices toward women tend to gravitate to this kind of ambiguous message that verges on the edge of sexism, which in turn fosters their pre-existing bias in addition to reaffirming values that had hindered sexual equality in the first place.

I am by no means attacking the existence of the MRC. Groups in the Rice community have a right to foster organization for a good cause if their founders feel that certain needs or problems, such as men's issues, are not paid enough attention to on campus.

However, that organization stops being beneficial when it empowers one sex at the expense of the other and reinforces certain gender stereotypes. This is what the slogan of the "COM(MAN)D" shirt does, by priming viewers to associate the idea of power with one particular gender, a notion that has no place on this campus. Therefore, I strongly urge the MRC to stop selling the "COM(MAN)D" shirts and to be more sensitive in the framing of its messages.

Jennifer Luo is a Sid Richardson College junior.

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