Students can stop at Vendors Row in front of the Viking Union (VU) for all kinds of goods. They can get a hot dog from El Capitan’s or a scone from The Coffee Lady, but one thing that can no longer be found on the row is the Women of Western Swimsuit Calendar.

The calendar's creator, Western graduate Jason LaBaw, was turned away from Vendors Row due to complaints from various staff and students that the calendar is offensive and degrading, said James Schuster, director of VU Facilities.

The calendar features a 12-month collection of women wearing bikinis and was photographed in Bellingham and Western settings including the beach, Red Square and a chemistry lab.

Schuster said the calendar doesn’t fit with the image Western tries to present to the community. Selling the calendar in front of the VU gave the impression that Western endorses the calendar, which it does not, he said.

Schuster has controlled everything sold on Vendors Row for his 31 years of employment at Western, he said. As director of VU Facilities, Schuster has the power to interpret and enforce any decisions concerning Vendors Row, according to Western’s Sale of Goods and Services Policy.

He said he has turned away people selling smoking paraphernalia and companies trying to sell credit cards and cell phones, because smoking paraphernalia clashes with Western's intended image and cell phones and credit cards are explicitly banned from sale, according to the policy.

Some of the complaints claimed the calendar objectifies women, said Sherry Mallory, special assistant to the vice president for Student Affairs and Academic Support Services. Vendors Row is very public and in many cases, the first part of campus parents and prospective students see, Mallory said.

LaBaw said he doesn’t feel the calendar is degrading at all. He chose to include a short biography of each girl in the calendar to make sure that the women are seen as people instead of objects, he said.

Each model was photographed in a way that intends to reveal something about her, rather than make the models generic objects, he said.

The intent was to create a useful calendar that appealed to the college demographic, which is why he included dates such as dead week and the quarter changes, LaBaw said.

Western junior Amy Braden, a model for the calendar, said she can see why people would be angry, but she doesn’t feel degraded at all.

“We’re women and we’ve gone through so much to be able to be here,” Braden said. “I can understand where they’re coming from but I’m educated and I’m in college. I don’t think it’s a bad thing that I’m sexy.”

The models are all friends of LaBaw who thought it would be a fun project to work on, he said.

LaBaw intends to pay each of them for their time as soon as the calendar has paid for itself, he said.

The Crime and Sexual Assault Support Services Center (CASAS) did not field any complaints about the calendar, said Elva Giddings, Prevention and Wellness Services director and CASAS supervisor.

The Social Issues Resource Center and the Women’s Center declined to comment on the calendar.

Western political science professor Paul Chen said the ban on calendar sales on Vendors Row does not violate any freedom of speech or freedom of expression laws because this issue involves the sale of a product, and the university is allowed to dictate such activities on campus.

The only way to obtain a calendar is on LaBaw’s Web site, Notorious-Productions.com. The price has been reduced from $15 to $10, LaBaw said.

Comments (2)

Posted by smilesriles, on Oct. 25, 2007 11:06PM This is not an issue of objectifying women, but rather an issue of LaBaw making money by means of Western's name, and Western not getting a cut. They are all pissed because they aren't making any De-Money. Oh yeah, and Jon is Canadian bacon. Report

Posted by Rico Penguin, on Nov. 03, 2007 03:57PM Women – Dirty Nasty Women  As the years have been passing I’ve learned a few things about women. Any girl who is confident with her own body is either a whore, skank, or slut regardless of her sexual activity. Any girl who enjoys sex is a disease ridden freak of nature and finally any girl that doesn’t dress in full body sweatshirt and jeans or something else similar to a suit of armor is objectifying women.  Where did I learn these things? When did I find out just how nasty and dirty women are? When I started hanging around girls. Women above all else hate other women, this sounds generalized, but generally I find it to be true. It’s not always true, but nothing ever is, it’s just a much larger part of the anger pie that women create. Over the years, the one thing setting women back, a day, a month, or a decade, has been the rash close minded reactions of women in the hopes of defeating the “objectification”.  I’m not saying that women should run around topless, it’s far too cold to even attempt to justify such a reaction (plus it’s not physically a smart idea because of gravity and other issues), but if you want to make it somewhere in life you have to be happy with who you are. If you aren’t happy, find healthy means to achieve what you want. You can safely fix any physical issues you might have, but fixing an ugly personality is difficult. The only reason men have managed to get where they are is because they spend less time attempting   I’ve seen lots of provocative pictures of women (I play MTG you figure it out), but not once have I ever correlated woman and toaster in my mind. The female body is easily one of the most beautiful works of art on this earth, I find it a shame that these very works of art wish to destroy each other so much. Report

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