2 The Daily Collegian
Editorial Opinion
Penn State glasnost
Soviet students at the University
are a sign of the changing times
It's refreshing to see glasnost take
place on a local level.
During the past few weeks stu
dents from the Soviet Union have
been making the mountains, the
prairies, Stone Valley and Penn
State their home sweet home.
University officials have agreed
to participate in the People to Peo
ple Youth Science exchange pro
gram which brings 83 academically
gifted high school juniors and
seniors to University Park to take
classes. The foundation contacted
the University and asked them to
take part in the program.
Programs like this one are help
ing to dissolve the heavy red cloud
surrounding the Soviet Union, and
to bring people and nations togeth
er. Coming to terms with people of
other cutures is the first step in
making the cold war a thing of the
past.
And while most of the students do
not speak English well, they will
certainly take home with them an
understanding of American people
and lifestyle that can't be learned
from a text.
The students, who arrived at the
beginning of July, are taking classes
in astronomy, astrophysics, com
puter science and physics. This
dn; Collegian
Thursday, July 19, 1990
E)1990 Collegian Inc.
Editor
Ted M. Sickler
Business Manager
Ty D. Stroh!
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Playing tennis in white and other menstrual myths
Early in the sixth grade, the athletics instruc
tor one day took all the boys to the gym. Then the
completely starched school nurse gently herded
the girls into a cramped room where we
received our first formal instruction about men
struation.
My Opinion
Words like "uterus" and "follicles" and "pub
ic symphysis" descended into the electric air
around us; impressive words, we knew,
designed just to confuse and delude us about the
reality of this ominous and inevitable thing
blood, and more years of it than we could imag
ine.
But not to worry. The nation's leading tampon
manufacturer had taken on the responsibility
of allaying the fears of millions of tittering pre
pubescent girls.
In a film called The Curse, we learned that
menstruation had been long maligned through-
sharing in the classroom is a new
start. Before, Russian knowledge
was locked behind the iron curtain,
and American technology was clo
sely guarded.
Now our understanding of the uni
verse is universal and can be shared
in a classroom populated by both
Americans and Russians.
This is the real meaning of glas
nost.
The students will also be taught
the basics of teenage social life in
America : golf, picnics, plays and
pizza parties are included in their
curriculum. Perhaps "The Simp
sons" will be added as an extra -cur
ricular activity.
The teenagers will be able to
make comparisons between the two
cultures to create better under
standing. And even if burgers don't
taste better than borscht, at least
the Soviet students have the chance
to try new things and bring their
knowledge home with them.
University students can become
a part of this cultural exchange by
welcoming the students to our cam
pus. By going out of their way to
talk to any of the visiting Soviets
they meet on campus, Penn Staters
can help break thorugh cultural
barriers.
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out the dark centuries. But with the invention of
a Space-Age plug of cotton, we wouldn't have to
suffer the way our foremothers had, hiding
themselves away during their periods, secretly
wringing out bloody rags far from the scorn of
men. Instead we could bike, play tennis in white,
swim and ride a horse in complete confidence.
The tampon fixed everything. And the best
thing about it was that "No one will know."
After the movie, we were given complimen
tary tampons and attractive carrying cases ( if
a boy got into your purse, you certainly wouldn't
want him seeing those things there). The art tea
cher then distributed informational pamphlets
liberally decorated with flowers and smelling
suspiciously pink.
The school nurse showed us a chart of our
internal sexual organs, pointing to the fallopian
tubes and saying they reminded her of fingers.
I thought instead of cow udders.
One girl with an older sister told about a secret
little calendar marked with red circles hidden
in a drawer. Someone else admitted her mother
still wore old-fashioned sanitary belts (this was
prior to the advent of peel-and-stick pads). Most
of us were simply embarrassed.
We all left that room in straight lines, our par
ty favors hidden away. I wondered if I'd ever
feel those fallopian tubes-fingers-tiny udders
fluttering deep inside me. We felt uneasy, but
somehow older, and when we finally met up with
our male classmates, we knew that everything
had changed.
a IN .
Opinions
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4111.
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Quote/Unquote
Question:
What would you say to the incoming University president?
(,__
Do something about the parking
situation for undergraduate stu
dents. Increase the parking area
for us. I live way off campus; I
have to drive in, and the closest I
can park is eight blocks off or Lot
80.
Reader Opinion
Justice?
I find it rather laughable, however sad, that
there is not equal justice in America if you are
black or poor. It is ironic that Charlotte Keene
embezzled "about" $23,000 from the College of
Agriculture and was only sentenced to six
This is the 1970 s message I got about men
struation: It's a woman's thing and should only
be discussed with other women, particularly
those in sanitary uniforms, but it's something
to be endured privately rather than discussed
publically. Ostensibly, tampon manufacturers
had liberated women, but this freedom was
Toms OF NE
UNKNOWN TAPES
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VISITORS GUIDE TO 11. IE
NEW RICHARD NIKON UIPARY.
Ted Starinshak
senior-nuclear engineering
Collegian Graphic/Mark Smith
I think diversity is an important
issue that needs to be thought
about in terms of getting more
minority students up here. Not only
that, but also making awareness
more known about for students oth
er than African Americans gay
and lesbian students, Asian stu
dents and such.
Aaron Lecoin
senior-engineering
months in-house detention and a half year's pro
bation. Yet David James, a former Undergrad
uate Student Association member, "embezzled"
less than $l,OOO and is threatened with with 12
years in prison. Of course Charlotte has to
undergo counseling and pay back the University
for funds and items taken; that must be the JUS-
granted to us on the condition that women never
really admitted something extraordinary hap
pened to us every month. As long as we denied
this and never actually let anyone aside from
a few good female friends know that we per
sonally bled, everything would be tennis-whites
fine.
The 1990 s message takes a different angle:
Yes, women do experience radical, hormone
induced mood swings, and talking about it in
public is OK since premenstrual syndrome is
now used as common fodder for talk-show hosts
and stand-up comics, a defense for murder and
a lousy excuse for why women shouldn't be pres
ident.
Once again, the media-and-manufacturing
powers that be have passed judgment on the
nature of women's bodies. The new decade has
given us a sense of humor about menstruation.
We've also got lots of little caplets billed as won
drous cure-alls.
Humor and pills neither approach considers
women seriously. The unstated assumption of
present-day attitudes about menstruation is that
there's something that needs to be fixed, an atti
tude not dissimiliar to the dark ages.
I am a woman who cannot get through a men
strual cycle without pain relievers, and even
then I sometimes wake up from a deep sleep
with cramps that I swear could kill a strong
horse. I'll be the first to admit that a period is not
exactly a joyful experience, but it is a time, I
believe, that I and other women see the world
most clearly.
„.,,,,!
1110.
You know, in Pennsylvania
tuition is increasing $2OO or $3OO for
Pennsylvania people. That's a
lot. . . Control the budget.
Leo Suniaga
senior-exercise science
Thursday, July 19, 1990
IBC* ERLKIIMANN.
OFAN3IAMINwi•SIANS
MIItHEU- MAGRUDER
Get in touch with the student
body, and try to maintain a good
relationship with the students.
Keep up with their opinions,
because things change so much
and so fast.
Michelle Carlson
freshman-chemical engineering
Compiled by Jesse Fox Mayshark
and Chris Gaydosh
TIFICATION for her "GETTING OFF." If
there is anyone out there who can make me
understand this "JUSTICE" please attempt to
do so.
Saundra D. Edwards
Assistant director, Paul Robeson Cultural Cen
ter
I recently saw a pin that read, "I'm not pre
menstrual. I'm always like this." The descrip
tive word most often linked with
"premenstrual" is "bitchiness," and the image
is not pretty for most people. Why? To beat an
old feminist drum, men expect us to be nice. My
husband's main complaint about my menstrual
affected conversation is that my observations
are ruthless and my language is strong. I cut to
the bone, and I feel the chill of every incision.
A few years ago I began noticing that my cre
ativity fluctuated along with hormone surges,
and that when I'm premenstrual, I'm innovative
and energetic (albeit, intolerable to some). I've
never read about this, nor have I ever heard
anyone talk about it. But I do know that I don't
want a pill to fix it.
I always wondered what the gym teacher
talked about with the boys the time I saw my
first cross-section of a uterus. I had supposed
they were seeing similar charts of male genita
lia. I had hoped they were learning about the
amazing potentials of girls' bodies and would
forever regard us as creatures of deep mystery
and power.
When I went to my 10-year reunion last sum
mer, I finally asked an old friend just what hap
pened in the gym that day. "We talked about
jock-straps for a while," he said, "then we shot
hoops the rest of the time."
Gigi Marino, a graduate student in English,
is a columnist for The Daily Collegian.
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