Letter to the editor

Emotions stirred from column

My thoughts on “Sweatpants are the reason women are single” ranged from disbelief to complete disgust. While this article may be merely a ploy to generate controversy (as rumors speculate), I found it difficult to believe that anyone could be so completely tasteless and lacking in respect, not just for women but for the average reader.

The article is flawed on many levels. For instance, the author makes a correlation between learning in a classroom and working for a corporation like General Motors. A corporate job involves performance of skills obtained, a classroom requires absorption of skills yet unattained. The two are not comparable.

I also found it strange that Mr. Evans made a point of saying he doesn’t “want to single out the women” and yet chose to begin his article in exactly that way. “Hey ladies.” Females in my classes responded by saying, “We’re here to learn, not to impress,” and, “I’m not here to get an MRS degree.”

But the most offensive point of all was this ridiculous emphasis on women dressing to impress men. If a woman is single, is she less of a woman? Is this author saying that men are so absolutely shallow that sweatpants are their measure by which to judge women? The men I talked with were also offended in that this article was meant to speak for all men when it clearly does not.

Finally, I was surprised that this sweatpants issue was the one on which Mr. Evans decided to make his literary stand. He didn’t seem to take into account that the written word never dies. As a wise woman I know said, “Perhaps you should be more careful how you look in print, than how you look in sweatpants.”

Alison Woodford
Student