At UCONN, the leaders have decided to update their current Huskies mascot to something a bit more aggressive and intimidating. With the success of their basketball programs, both female and male, I can see how a change is warranted. The semi-comical Huskies logo that was used is kind of wimpy. However, a female undergrad at UCONN has taken issue with said change, and the Huffington Post is running with it.
"Two days ago, Carolyn Luby, an undergraduate at University of Connecticut published a remarkable open letter to the school's president, Susan Herbst, in The Feminist Wire. In the letter she made her case and argued persuasively that the school's new mascot and branding should be reconsidered. The school had decided as part of this visual identity revamping to change its Husky Dog logo from the current mascot to a more "powerful and aggressive" looking logo. She was polite, deliberate and thorough in her analysis and reasoning. So, of course, people are harassing her, belittling her and violently threatening her with rape. Oh, and the campus police haven't been particularly helpful. Where do you begin to tackle a culture where a school mascot is a popular rape meme and the campus television station airs a video for an campus hot-line that features a "howler monkey bitch" who is "crying rape?"
As part of this anti-feminist backlash targeting a female student daring to speak in defense of safety for women, the site, Barstool Sports reposted her letter, which generated the predictably violent and misogynistic gender-based comments. A second site was created just so people could make rape jokes against her. On campus people are harassing her and she is receiving hate mail. Even Rush Limbaugh has weighed in to mock her, minimize the real threat and actuality of violence against women, and mumbled in his tired old patriarchal patois about Feminazis and cartoon characters. I will not link to anything he says or does because it is usually infused with a mean-spirited, dangerous ignorance and darkness, and I like information rooted in truth that sheds light and makes the world a better place."
See here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/why-is-uconns-mascot-a-po_b_3165756.html
I'm not quite convinced that an Internet meme, known as "Insanity Wolf", and used for several variations, is comparable to the proposed new UCONN mascot logo, but then again, I don't consider myself a modern feminist according to their standards.
Has it come to this point, that whenever an image is used, it must automatically be associated with something it is not for the sake of a political agenda? The two images, ("Insanity Wolf" and the new UCONN mascot), look nothing alike. At all.
I believe this is nothing more than a female with too much time on her hands, looking to make a name for herself.
