BW photo by Dante Parker/The Daily Barometer\nJodi Ann Paterson inset
CORVALLIS, Ore. - We're not entirely sure if this is a first. But four women at Oregon State University literally blew their tops May 6 at the news that an OSU alumna was named Playboy's Playmate of the Year; they took off their shirts and put bunny ears on their heads, objecting to the attention OSU graduate Jodi Ann Paterson is receiving.
The OSU daily newspaper, the Daily Barometer, reported the four handed out flyers in protest, saying their protest was only right considering the attention Paterson is getting. "If an OSU student can pose for Playboy and be praised for it, why can't we take our shirts off when it gets hot?" they said.
The four - three of whom belong to a group known as the Lesbian Avengers - protested just a few feet from the Renaissance Fair and a Mom's Weekend look-alike contest.
The flyer they passed around, the Barometer said, parodied the paper's May 2 issue, which featured a front page story on Paterson's Playmate of the Year selection. The parody flashed a headline saying, "OSU Dyke Chosen Beaver of the Year… Nothing Else Important Happened Today." The back contained this message: "Our culture will accept and glamorize a womyn's [sic] exposed body when it is commodified and objectified, plastered on billboards and sold in convenience stores and gas stations for men's consumption. But when a womyn decides to expose her breasts for her own pleasure or comfort (for instance, because it is hot outside) her body becomes dirty, obscene, vulgar and offensive."
The message also said "womyn" won't let their bodies sell on magazine racks "for a man's four dollar sexual escapade. But we will also not buy into the sexist lie that our bodies are offensive and should be hidden from decent people."
It isn't known, however, whether they had protested when Paterson first appeared as a Playmate.
