I would like to ask you, the reader, how many times you’ve had to explain to friends and acquaintances what exactly a Hokie Bird is. How many times you’ve defended our mascot’s honor, and reiterated countless times, that no, our school is not represented by a mere turkey.
This is precisely the situation that members of the Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club have been thrown into with the recent censorship of our mascot, Frank N Hokie. Frank N Hokie — a tribute to the character from RHPS after whom he is named — is a Hokie Bird wearing a corset and fishnets. He has been on our Web site since Virginia Tech’s licensing department gave us permission to use him in 1994. Recently, however, it sent us a takedown notice regarding this image. A temporary graphic is now on our home page in lieu of our variant of the Hokie Bird.
Now, just as outsiders to Tech may not understand why on earth we would want Thanksgiving dinner as our mascot, it may be unclear to those not in our club why we would want a Hokie Bird in “bustier and leggings” to represent us. Hopefully in drawing this parallel, I’ve made the reasoning more clear: Frank N Hokie has nothing to do with making a mockery of Tech as an educational institution, but everything to do with representing what the RHPS fan club is as a registered student organization.
For those who have either seen the movie, been to one of our shows, or plan to come to the show this week, it should be pretty clear that this is who we are and what we do. Thus, our mascot is not about portraying our school in a negative light. Frank N Hokie is about representing our student organization, as our club lies in the intersection of spirit for Tech and for Rocky Horror fandom.
I understand fully why the licensing department has the power to censor certain images of the Hokie Bird. Its Web site states (among other restrictions) that illustrations of our mascot cannot be tied in with sex, drugs or alcohol, or be made in “poor taste.” These are necessary restrictions to maintain the image of our school as a reputable institution. However, we received verbal permission to use this as our logo 16 years ago. I cannot fathom why an image that was approved then would not be OK now. I could perhaps be biased as a member of the organization, but keep in mind that the spirit of Frank N Hokie’s portrayal is influenced by our shows. Year after year we obtain approval by the budget board and event planning to organize events that draw hundreds of people a night, so certainly we cannot be alone.
Overall, this situation seems to boil down to the fact that a corset and fishnets lies in one individual’s discernment of “poor taste.” Frankly, I don’t see what is so atrocious about the standard Rocky garb. Our mascot is fully covered — poor Hokie Bird is typically naked. As it is usually assumed that the character in question is male, perhaps having artwork that depicts him being transgender is what set off red flags for licensing. Calling Frank N Hokie in poor taste then seems to raise a few gender identity issues and dismiss an entire group of people who live alternative lifestyles. Personally, I find that in more poor taste than censoring the RHPS fan club’s beloved mascot.
Mary Wilkerson
Mathematics doctoral student
Event planning coordinator, Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club