Monday, September 19, 2005
KU
One of the big things I noticed was just by walking around my hall. Johnson apparently has a very active (and manipulative) Hall Council. The walls, both in the lobby and each wing of the building, are plastered with posters and signs. There are constantly events going on in the hall. As somebody else mentioned in their post, this may be a deterrent to students going out and drinking. Some of these however, actually play on the students love of alcohol. Currently there is advertising for "Root Beer Pong". This particular event has 7 posters in the lobby, 2 in the elevator, and no less than 60 in the Hall. While it is Root Beer Pong, the word "Root" is in perentheses and approximately half a centimeter high while the words "beer pong" are no less than 3 inches tall and bold. This is just one of many of such events that did not turn out quite as they were advertised. Others included "Naked Coed Bingo", "Thong Party", and "Ice Cream Social". Hall Council puts on these lackluster events in an attempt to stop people from going out and drinking, doing drugs, or other such unseemly things; however, they advertise in such away that it actually works sometimes, and occasionally the events are actually fun.
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1 comment:
I like your observation, close reading if you will, of the (root) Beer Pong poster. One could read such signs as kind of like "practice" for the "real" thing. That is, by promoting (root) beer pong, it could be argued that it is a means through which to teach those uninitiated pongers the rules of the game. Obviously, this is not the intention, but it raises the question about the unintended consequences of the message/practice.
The other signs you point out also draw upon other aspects of the "un-official" context: sex. While "Ice Cream Social" does not (necessarily) fall into this category, "Thong Party" and "Naked Coed Bingo" clearly do. And come to think of it, while the university has a clear and visible position on alcohol, the issue of sex is pretty absent from the university's web page--yet, we do see it referenced in the signs you point out.
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