Seeing how this is women’s month, please take time to consider the Rocky Horror Picture Club’s version of the school mascot dressed in a bustier and leggings to promote their club. The picture was approved for use in 1994, but apparently the rights to use the mascot for the Rocky Club are not going to be re-approved by the university. The Rocky Club wants the image to be re-approved. I recommend getting in contact with them to supply the image.
Regardless of the use of the image, I have found it very unsettling that the university would approve an image to be used like this. In the post April 16 atmosphere I can see why the university may have underwent a change in heart.
Unofficial uses of the mascot following the tragedy generated both positive and negative uses of the mascot. It is good for the school to be open-minded and allow such connotations to exist, but at the same time one cannot help but feel the image is a mockery to the university’s mascot. Even when considering what the image promotes, it almost feels like something an opposing university would hoist at a big sporting event. Regardless of what gender the Hokie Bird is to be perceived as, I believe an interesting dialogue would ensue if this were to be brought into the mainstream of campus.
John Sperry
2008 Graduate
A version of this article appeared in the Mar 5 issue of the Collegiate Times.
Leave a comment 29 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
Lighten up - its a turkey with muscles - how much more ridiculous can we get. Let the club have fun.
Sean - VT '05.
Reply to this Top
What does this have to do with Women's Month? The character in the bustier and leggings is a man. Did you not understand that from the movie?
Reply to this Top
Feel free to burn your degree and reapply elsewhere. I'm ashamed to be associated with you. Quit making drama and controversy out of nothing.
Reply to this Top
In light of April 16th, VT needs to be as inclusive of EVERY HOKIE as it can be. Not implementing discriminatory policies and isolating certain VT students because someone's personal discrimination thinks a nontraditional gender identity is "inappropriate."
Reply to this Top
This comment has been buried by moderation (show comment)
Top
What's next - saying the "Hokietron" is offensive to robots?
Reply to this Top
Touche. Or, that the OrangeMan is offensive to the blueman group
Reply to this Top
The demand for our club to stop using the image we call Frank N Hokie seems to be the result of the prejudice of a single administrator in the Licensing office. While I cannot supply proof of a phone conversation from 16 years ago, we were given permission to use this image. It had appeared on our homepage for 15 years without complaint.
We have used it in every Homecoming parade since 1999, with people cheering our floats (which also have won awards from the Homecoming Committee). To imply it represents a lack of school spirit and devotion to VT is a complete misrepresentation of the history of our organization.
I feel that if we had chosen to dress the Hokie Bird in any other character's costume, no one in Licensing would have batted an eye. I certainly do not understand how Mr. Sperry can connect this image to April 16. Perhaps he meant to connect the current economic downturn to the display of the image.
Robert Sebek
advisor, Rocky Horror Fan Club at VT
Reply to this Top
I can remember when the CT used to print some of the worst letters to the editor articles ever. I mean stuff that was real crazy, like stuff that bordered on X-Files conspiracy theory stuff. That stuff was crap, but this letter being published shows that the CT has hit a new low. Its a fake bird species with muscles... accept it and quit trying to find offensive imagery where there isn't any.
Reply to this Top
The corset and fishnet stockings are a costume that is worn by a character in the film Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). If you actually knew that "The Rocky Club", as you call it, was inspired by this film, then you might actually understand why the Hokie Bird is depicted in such attire.
As a woman and as a person who has actually seen the movie, I do not find the attire offensive. What I do find offensive is close-minded bigotry, which is what your attitude represents to me. Can I please have your attitude banned from the internet in the same way that you would like to have Frank N Hokie banned?
Reply to this Top
In my eyes the Hokiebird represents all that make Virginia Tech a proper institution. To deem that the Hokiebird dressed in a corset and fishnet stockings is inappropriate indicates that the school shows prejudice and discrimination towards alternative lifestyles. I thought Virginia Tech was a mutually accepting university. Theres an entire department based around inclusion and equity. In addition a policy approved by the Board of Visitors about the prohibition of discrimination can be found at the link below:
http://www.policies.vt.edu/1025.pdf
Is the university in denial of the policies its put in place since its establishment? What can we expect next; that the university will stop hiring African Americans or allow professors to give higher grades to women regardless of merit. I hope that Virginia Tech administration is alerted of this letter and see the issues that could arise from it. Im also hopeful that they are more open-minded than the writer of this letter and the licensing and trademark office.
Jacques Walker
Rocky Horror Picture Show Technical Lead
Reply to this Top
As a long-time Rocky Horror Picture Show fan and a family-member of a VT graduate I am baffled by the offense taken to Frank N Hokie. VTs Rocky Club is a vital, fun-loving and inclusive group that is a great social asset to VT. Let Frank N Hokie live!!
Reply to this Top
Really now. Virginia Tech keeping a tighter control on its intellectual property (A policy that is being applied to more clubs than just Rocky Horror.) does not mean that they're going to suddenly stop hiring African Americans.
Reply to this Top
Probably not the best argument that can be made. If the bird represents all of us, then that's more reason NOT to permit it to be dressed up in such a manner. I know I wouldn't want to be dressed up in a corset and fishnet stockings.
At least, not without some money changing hands.
Reply to this Top
As a Virginia Tech community member, let me say I am not personally represented by a big orange cartoon turkey! If we're going to be offended by variations on the Hokiebird theme, we better go pull up all those fiberglass Hokiebird statues painted in all kinds of oddball ways.
Having said that, I don't think there's anything wrong with the Hokiebird going out on the town as a sweet transvestite on Saturday nights.
Top
Ok, number 1, as a woman I don't find this image offensive in the least, so don't you dare try to say you're sticking up for me, you're not (other commenters are right though, it's depicting a male character). I don't think you supply any evidence to make your point. This image has been used, and embraced I might add, for more than a decade (also fishnets are not legging, get your facts straight at least). This is not mocking the University, it's saying that hey, we may be Rocky Horror fans, but we're proud Hokies as well. They're taking something that has a cult following across the nation and saying, we want our school involved too, because we're so proud of it. Honestly, I'm just speechless that you'd exploit our horrible tragedy of 4-16 to try (and fail in my opinion) to prove your own selfish point, how dare you. If we followed your lead, I can foresee 4-16 becoming like 9-11, where we forget what really happened and just use it as an excuse to not answer questions. Oh the students feel that this is unfair, well 4-16, 4-16, 4-16. Are you sir, also against the LBGTA (T stands for transgendered remember). So in closing, leave those poor kids alone, they're having fun, and you're being ridiculous.
Reply to this Top
I'm both a woman and a cast member of the Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club. As such, you are pulling events that you seem to think are valid in your argument. Women's Month has nothing to do with this, and neither does April 16th. I'm sorry you feel the need to exclude transgendered people from VT, but not only is the club advocating unity as a Hokie community for all realms of people we are also trying to lighten people's spirits in a way only we can. Frank N Hokie was a play on a character from the movie that was validated in the past, we even used him in the homecoming parade this year and no one seemed to jeer or boo. As a matter of fact the students took a piece of our float and used it to cheer on the Hokies to victory. It makes me really happy that other people see how silly this argument is and that we aren't breaking laws with our mascot as many other clubs who have revamped the Hokie Bird into other things aren't in "poor taste." Thank you all, you are what make the world a better place.
Reply to this Top
John - attempting to use the events of 4/16 to advance your agenda is repulsive.
~08
Reply to this Top
John Sperry : 4/16 :: Rudy Giuliani : 9/11
Reply to this Top
Amen to that. I couldn't care less about the Rockey Horror Picture show or Frank 'n Hokie. But to steal the events of April 16th to make a completely unrelated point is beyond crass.
Reply to this Top
What does this have to do with 4-16 at all? The only reason you feel it's a "mockery" is your aweful close minded view~
~Vinci
08
Reply to this Top
Frank N Hokie doesn't offend me at all, but your apparent disregard for 4/16 does. And as a woman, I don't see what this has to do with women's month at all. Have you even seen the movie? Do you know anything about the club? Get your facts straight.
Reply to this Top
Like Frank-N-Hokie, I arrived at Virginia Tech in 1994. So I've seen him (yes, him) on posters and in parades for 15 years. Is that character more over-the-top than me? Sure. But does that do me any harm? Plainly and simply, no. Campus is large, and there's room on it for diversity.
As I understand it, The Rocky Horror Fan Club sought, and got, licensing approval for the use of Frank-N-Hokie in 1994. So they followed the rules that existed at the time. To me, that looks like open and honest behavior.
15 years later, what changes? Somebody complains about "bad taste". We don't know at all what that person's motivation was. It could be that they had a bad day, and just snapped at the first thing that irritated them.
It happens.
But a question that arises from this complaint is, should one or two people's version of what is "bad taste" be allowed to overrule something that has been accepted as OK on campus for 15 years? I think that question merits further discussion.
Regards, Peg
Reply to this Top
I feel like you're taking this way too seriously. Lighten up.
Reply to this Top
This letter was obviously written by Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia's AG.
Reply to this Top
Seriously? Women's Month? April 16? Don't act so indignant.
Reply to this Top
It is the last try of those who have no real argument.
Reply to this Top
I cannot believe that this image is causing so many problems. I am a woman, at VT graduate, and a regular in a Rocky Horror cast. It's not offensive, it's all in good fun. Get over it!
Reply to this Top
I find the Rocky Horror club and its mascot to be a model club and example of the fantastic diversity we have at this university.
I may not find fishnets comfortable, but that doesn't mean I should stop others from having fun
Reply to this Top