I Pledge Stupidtiy

File this one under "What Were They Thinking?"

According to the Associated Press and UGA's Redandblack.com, the University of Georgia suspended the Chi Phi fraternity last Friday for flashing images from a porn magazine at passersby on campus.

Here's the kicker: the magazine is called Black Tail, so you can guess the ethnicity of the women in the magazine. And the pledges photographed people's reactions as they flashed the photos.

Chi Phi president Matthew Hughes said the fraternity is "embarassed" by the incident, disavowed any prior knowledge, and refused to explain why the pledges were showing this magazine in Tate Plaza in the first place.

WTF?

1. SHowing porn to the unsuspecting and photographing their reactions without their consent.
2. Showing this particular magazine, as if no one would be upset at a predominantly homogenous university (which is actively seeking diversity) who has pledges who think this is "funny." (Yes, one of the pledges actually said that to a reporter. Funny.)

Don't women have a hard enough time as it is? Especially black women? We're either objects to decorate a rap video or overweight grandmothers playing the movie going audience for laughs. And don't get me started on the MTV cartoon that showed black women on leashes squatting on all fours. It's one thing to be into bondage, but this was something else.

At least in romance novels, black women can be portrayed as the intelligent, successful, well-rounded women we are. Women who demand and receive respect. Women who get wild because they choose to, not because it's the only option. Women who are not objects, but object to being treated like one.

So to my romance-writing sistahs, thank you.