Many of you may have seen or heard about the new signage posted on Sarnia Road at the southern edge of Brescia’s campus. It included a photograph of one of our recent graduates, wearing her cap and gown with the caption “Her mind is as sharp as her heels.” I’d love to report that the feedback to this message was universally positive, but that has not been the case. Instead, while we received a tremendous amount of positive feedback, especially from our intended audience of students and potential students in the 18-24 year age range, there was a sizeable amount of very unhappy response to this signage.
I have had many conversations about this sign – in person, on the phone, via e-mail and even on /A\ Channel News in London – and its place in our current recruitment campaign at Brescia. People whom I deeply respect have expressed to me that this message has offended them. Some report it having created a feeling of physical violence through the juxtaposition of sharp heels and brains. For others, it trivializes the impact of Brescia’s educational mission by making light of the Brescia experience and the Brescia student. For still others, it enforces historical gendered stereotypes about women, femininity, and intellect.
Some of the most vocal opponents have suggested to me that this sign has the effect of excluding some women from what is being promoted as the “Brescia experience.” It could be interpreted to suggest that anyone who is not fashionable, beautiful, or image-conscious has no place at Brescia. It was this last interpretation that has led me to write about this in a public blog.
Over the two years since my arrival here, I have come to learn that “Brescia” and the “Brescia experience” are defined in countless ways by different people. What remains important to remember is that each definition, assuming it is made in good faith, is equally authentic and valuable. When a young alumna explains to me, patiently, that this sign is too lighthearted and ‘does not speak to my experience at Brescia,’ there is a temptation to quickly remove the subject of such offense. However, upon reflection, I realize that I have observed a variety of unique and arguably contrary versions of what the Brescia experience is.
In the past year, Brescia has hosted a number of speakers who would clearly define themselves as activists – social, political, or even spiritual. Take for example, Dr. Samantha Nutt, the founder of War Child Canada who spoke at last year’s Breakfast for Bursaries about her work with women and children in war zones around the world. We also heard from Sheila Watt-Cloutier last fall about her attempts to draw political attention to the plight of the Innu in the Arctic Circle that results from our blatant disregard for the environment. In the spring, we had a rousing talk from Globe and Mail correspondent Stephanie Nolen, detailing her lessons on the impact of AIDS on women in Africa.
At Brescia, we have a variety of academic and other programs that support girls and women in our community. Whether you talk about our amazing Girls LEAD summer camp, just expanded this summer to the Caribbean or our Take the Lead public speaking contest for young women in grades 11 and 12 or our Brescia Bright Futures bursary program that targets incoming students from the surrounding Southwestern Ontario region who have been so hard hit by the recent economic downturn, these programs are all doing some excellent work and speaking to what a Brescia experience can deliver.
For some of our students, the most memorable part of their Brescia experience has been playing flag football on the BUC team or volunteering in a school breakfast program in vulnerable area neighbourhoods. In my first year at Brescia, I was invited to attend a Mary Kay cosmetics party being hosted by one of our students. While I’m not much for make-up, it did remind me that some of our students are quite taken by the more glamorous dimensions of their femininity. Similarly, having now attended two of the annual Brescia Ball events hosted by our students’ council, complete with the coronation of a Queen and Junior Princess of the Ball, it is clear to me that many of our students enjoy very much the combination of glamour and intellect. It was that combination that our sign was intended to play with, in a light-hearted manner.
If we allow ourselves to limit the definition of “Brescia” or the “Brescia experience,” we run the risk of impoverishing our dialogues. When I explained to one woman this past week that, in fact, there had been some strongly positive feedback to our signage coming from some current students and young alumnae, her response was that these women were “obviously unenlightened.” When did it become acceptable for one of us to judge a contrary view to our own as ‘unenlightened’? In fact, my sense remains that those who responded positively to this sign did so because it evoked in them a familiarity with their own views of women and feminism as allowing for both an emphasis on women’s strength and intellect and a nod to the desire for glamour and some more traditional images of femininity.
Rather than suggesting that any thinking, enlightened person could only see that message as distorted, stereotypical, and offensive, could we not instead see that the Brescia experience is in fact very unique to each woman whom we serve and that no experience is in any way ‘less than’ another experience, however that is expressed?
At Brescia, we are beginning to emerge from a challenging period of shrinking enrolment fuelled by various factors, including inaccurate views within the broader community of what Brescia is all about. To support a more accurate sense of our school, we need to show the many faces of the Brescia experience in a way that manages to be inclusive in its diversity. We need to support the different ways in which our students, prospective students, and alumnae view themselves as women. And I also believe that we need to maintain our collective sense of humour, whenever possible!
After many conversations revolving around this sign, it was decided that the advantages being achieved by our recruitment campaign were at risk of being overshadowed by the fact that some members of our community were feeling excluded and offended. It was decided that this sign would be removed earlier than planned, and replaced with a message that is less likely to trigger such divided responses. That has now taken place. It has become very clear to me that the Sarnia Road location, on Brescia’s property, is especially meaningful to our community, so we must take greater care to ensure that anything displayed there will resonate more broadly.
Although this has been a challenging situation to be sure, I am gratified by the extreme lengths to which members of our community will go to have their voices heard. There is a deep love of Brescia that has animated this dialogue and that continues to drive our community. There is no doubt in my mind that we are witnessing some amazing leadership around this issue from many corners of our community that can only be described as being bold – Brescia BOLD. It is a privilege to be connected to a community of this passion and commitment.
10 Responses
-
Monika Says:
Thank you for posting this commentary, Colleen. I agree that the dialogue sparked by the controversial sign is indicative of how much people care about Brescia. You might even say that the level and intensity of the debate was “a good sign”!
-
Jennifer Says:
You’ve gotta love how the postmodern mindset that our universities (like Western) push so much here in Canada have created a situation where the only acceptable thing to do is to not do anything because it may offend someone. How much of a headache has this created because some over-sensitive, busy bodies forced themselves to be offended and then decided to make somebody else’s day as bad as theirs is?
Decent article, Colleen, but you were overly gracious at the end to such people whose opinion should be heard and then discarded. We need to place blame where it really lay: If you have nothing else in your life to keep you occupied and have to look for the negative in everything, go to your room and sulk. Don’t make it everyone else’s problem.
My generation seems to have nothing better to do than to find ways to be offended, even if it doesn’t truly offend us personally. I don’t think it’s that most of your complainers really care about Brescia at all.
-
Erin Says:
Thanks, Dr. Hanycz, for an eloquent post on a controversial topic. I am familiar with the sign in question and can personally identify with it (I am proud of my Bresica education and I possess a passion for a myriad of things including fashion). I was quite surprised, though, the first time that I saw the sign as it seemed to exclude some students from the Brescia experience.
I am left with one thought: did the ad campaign include other slogans which were meant to represent the people of Brescia who are not concerned with fashion and beauty?
-
admin Says:
Yes, subsequent slogans in this campaign, which is now being re-examined, are slated to portray other ideas revolving around women’s education, without alluding to fashion or beauty. Thank you for your comment.
-
admin Says:
Thanks for your comment, Jennifer. In my blog I tried to show that this situation has struck a chord with many, coming from a variety of perspectives. At Brescia, we deeply value our sense of community and I want to reiterate my appreciation for those who care deeply enough about this school to get involved.
-
Audrey Says:
I love wearing heels and I love being smart. I love being able to define myself as a woman.
Thank you Colleen for allowing us to be bold, bright and Brescia in a way that works for us and for not allowing others to define us.
Isn’t what is being said contrary to the values of self-determination of the feminist movement?
Keep up the great work.
Audrey
-
admin Says:
Thanks, Audrey, for your kind response to my blog. I am learning that we all have different responses to things and we embrace difference at Brescia.
-
Tara Says:
I’m glad the sign has been exchanged and that Brescia is a school that cares enough to listen to its students. No one’s opinion should be discarded and I don’t think anyone is being a negative, sulking, busy-body! We obviously all care. I’m saddened that so many were so offended, at those who were offended! I can understand where both views come from and don’t understand where the hostility stems at all. There’s no logic in scoffing and shrugging off another’s viewpoint. It takes understanding and listening to be able to reason through an issue in a beneficial manner.
I don’t feel that even while I wear heels, that wearing heels defines women as women. I am a woman; I don’t need to define that to anyone. More importantly I don’t think that the sign embraced the diversity of the Brescia community at all.
Thank you, Colleen, for listening to everyone here at Brescia and taking to heart the spirit of the Brescia community!
-
admin Says:
Thanks, Tara, for taking the time to respond to my blog. As you have noted it takes a multitude of views to define a community and I value yours too.
-
Heather Says:
Thank you very much for this article! It has challenged me to push past my own discomfort with this sign to consider the range of issues and viewpoints involved – however, I remain happy that the sign in question has been removed.
Jennifer, I cannot agree with your post. I am one of those people who challenges the sign in question. I do not challenge it because I have nothing better to do nor because I have a negative outlook on life; rather, I am committed to participating in a present and future that is not only joyful, but also inclusive, empowering, and critically engaged for women at Brescia and beyond.
I would not suggest that high heels are incompatible with empowered femininity; nor would I suggest that someone who pursues and reflects dominant beauty and fashion norms cannot simultaneously be a feminist. However, I am concerned that in focusing on the compatibility of THESE identities, we risk marginalizing alternative femininities, feminisms, and futures.
I hope that in today’s Canada, the idea that a woman can be beautiful, fashionable, AND intelligent is not as new, radical, or thought-provoking as it once was. On the other hand, women who reject or do not to achieve gender norms continue to be marginalized in terms of the respect, recognition, and acceptance that they receive. So, why not post a sign that provokes new imaginings, broader configurations, and more radically diverse futures? It saddens me to consider that such a sign may fail to draw the students that Brescia needs to continue as an institution.