Does stealing these newspapers make me look fat?
Several women attending Framingham State College in Massachusetts are facing disciplinary action for stealing copies of student newspaper The Gatepost. The newspaper published a photograph showing them wearing midriffs at a lacrosse game and women said they stole the newspaper because they thought they looked fat in the picture, which can be seen here.
There aren’t any good reasons I can think of to steal copies of a newspaper but even if there were, this isn’t one of them. It would have been helpful for the paper to ask the women if they could publish the photo before printing it but that’s up to the paper (and there’s no indication that they didn’t ask permission).
From the International Herald Tribune:
Megan Turner, The Gatepost’s editor in chief, said about half of the 2,000-paper press run disappeared, though [college spokesman Peter] Chisholm said the number was far lower, perhaps 150 …
First year student Courtney Wall, who was in the photo, told The Associated Press the other women in the photo thought the paper swipe was “dumb,” and that she is upset to be associated with the theft through the picture.
“If I went out dressed like that, I don’t care if it’s in the paper, obviously,” she said. “I don’t see a problem with the picture.”
The Boston Globe reported that Turner wants the students to pay $600 to print 500 extra papers. “You’re standing in the way of the college community news,” she said.
Common sense would suggest that one should not make a scene in public and then complain when a photo of that scene is on the front page of a newspaper. Just as women are free to paint their stomachs and wear short shorts at a sporting event, newspapers are free to publish photos of it. Guess common sense isn’t so common.
The Student Press Law Center reported that Susanne Conley, Framingham dean of students is working with the chief of campus police to determine how to punish those involved in “an attempt to muzzle the press” and said that any punishment will include education in the implications of the First Amendment.
“This really shows our body image in our society. No one looking at the photo was going to say, wow, one of those women is fat or something,” Desmond McCarthy, The Gatepost’s adviser, said. Maybe it speaks more about spontaneity in young people.