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The Burger Grind Bar ad in The Rebel Yell is offensive

I am outraged by the full-page color advertisement for The Burger Grind Bar & Lounge that has appeared in at least two editions of The Rebel Yell, the most recent being the one on Thursday.

For those who might have missed this masterpiece of capitalistic garbage, allow me to describe it: Against a distressed, light brown background, the main copy reads, “After a hard day, unwind with something tender.”

A picture of a substantial hamburger is centered between these lines of mismatched print. To the left near the bottom of the page, more copy appears billing The Burger Grind Bar & Lounge as “a new kind of premium burger restaurant with industrial design, cool music and classic cocktails.”

To the right near the bottom of the page is a pseudo stamp bearing the name of this new eatery that gives it three stars and tells us it was established in 2008.

It is what is to the left of the pseudo stamp that is so offensive: a cartoon-like representation of a woman with long brown hair, red lipstick and presumably, an inviting smile on her face, on her knees with her face and nude backside presented to the viewer.

Oh, and don’t let me forget to tell you that almost all of this woman’s body parts are labeled for quick and easy identification: her shoulder, chuck, rib, breast, loin, rump, round and soup bone.

What kind of a message does such a depiction convey?

It connotes that women are nothing more than “tender” things for men to eat after said men have had “a hard day” and need to “unwind.”

That’s the kind of message The Rebel Yell and The Burger Grind Bar & Lounge want to send to the women of the university community? This is the best they can do in the 21st century? I feel as though I have fallen into a time-warp and found myself back at some point in the 1970s, or worse.

The publication of advertisements like that for The Burger Grind Bar & Lounge is doubly ironic considering the fact that on Oct. 8, university students and community members are set to speak out against violence directed toward women during the annual “Take Back the Night” event.

One of the reasons women are victimized by men so often is because of ads like that for The Burger Grind Bar & Lounge, which treat women as no more than cartoons and pieces of meat, undeserving of respect.

While Las Vegas may well be a city in which women are exploited in all sorts of ways for the amusement, titillation and the kicks of men in our patriarchal and misogynistic society, the university is no place for such demeaning, degrading and disgusting portrayals of human beings as featured in the ad for The Burger Grind Bar & Lounge.

As a doctoral student and a two-time alumnus of UNLV, I want answers: Who approved the acceptance and publication of such a reprehensible advertisement? Why was it accepted and published? And what are The Rebel Yell and The Burger Grind Bar & Lounge going to do to compensate those they have offended in the university community for their complete lack of judgment on this matter?

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When will we understand society’s standards?

Changing roles of men are accepted; women are still stereotyped

The beloved men in our generation have assigned many terms of endearment to women for the past few generations. “Hoe,” “slut,” “whore” and “smut” are some. Charming, aren’t they? Far from it. These nicknames are just as demeaning as they sound.

These words are only a few out of many degrading terms for women who engage in unforgivable acts like cheating, lying, openly discussing their sexuality, being involved with multiple sex partners, having one night stands, wearing short and tight fitting clothing or simply not giving a guy the time of day.

This is one of many of our society’s double standards that many of us know too well.
Promiscuity has been promoted and accepted by men all around the world: from men in some cultures having several wives to men in America being worshiped for being “pimps.”

Why is it that men get to have all the fun and women simply have to sit back and accept it?
Some time ago, men carried the image of being protectors and providers and women were expected to be the nurturers and caretakers.

A lot of men have abandoned their traditional responsibilities in our society, but women are still expected to continue to play the part of the “good girl.” Many women that are open about their sexuality are frowned upon. When women try to prevail over this double standard, women are told to be lady-like and have some class.

But men are not holding up their end of the deal. Why are men’s roles allowed to change? Why do they not have to look back at their previous responsibilities? It only seems right that if men are evolving, women should be allowed to change their traditional images too.

As cliché as it might sound, chivalry is, in fact, dead. Most men do not open doors and pay for dates like they used to. Today, men and women share their bills. Women seem to be adjusting just fine to men not providing for them anymore, so why does it seem so hard to grasp the concept of a woman with other freedoms as well?

Unfortunately, a lot of women give power to these appellations. Women scrutinize each other for having more than one sex partner instead of praising each other like men do. We can only expect men to respect our new identities if women start respecting each other.

Women are more judgmental than most men. Women referring to each other using curse words allows men to use the same words more liberally and more often. As a result, this increases a man’s power to dominate and verbally abuse women.

Women have had equal rights under the law for more than 40 years, but still they are treated like second-class citizens. Women have to dress appropriately lest they be labeled some dirty word. Women are told to act like lady-like when men do not act like gentlemen.

“Whores” are unwanted but pimps are cool. And women cannot even practice their constitutional right to the freedom of speech without being reprimanded for talking about their sex lives.

But guys can walk around boasting about their wild sexual encounters without really being looked down upon. Is this what equal rights and equal opportunity means?
I am not condoning promiscuity but simply stating the obvious: God created man and woman as equals, so it is about time people started acting like it.

Honestly, if the shoe were on the other foot, I would argue that men should have more sexual freedom. Understanding the opposite sex and having the same moral expectations will result in healthier romantic relationships and marriages.

Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re even close to breaking out of this double standard and we’re even farther from understanding why it exists.

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