Thursday's article XX XY Experiment definitely raised some issues for me at first glance.
After reading the story, I thought it was very well written; I applaud Tristan Navera for his thorough reporting on the topic. However, the graphic provided for the story was very misleading and not necessarily appropriate.
Before even sitting down to read it, I had no idea that the article was even going to be about housing. While the graphic illustrates the point that males and females could possibly share a room, it does so in a stereotypical, negative way.
The drawing point of gender-neutral housing is that it creates a safe, inclusive community for everyone - regardless of gender. The name itself illustrates the central concept of this type of housing: It is not people of different genders rooming together, but just people, with no assigned label.
The housing is also aimed at transgender individuals - those who don't identify with either gender. By making it seem like men will have posters of naked women taped on the walls and women will have bras hanging all over the room, I think that you have taken a step backward in all the progress that those advocating gender-neutral housing have made.
Those individuals with no assigned gender already feel uncomfortable enough trying to live in a world that tells them they must be categorized on the basis of stereotypical roles, without someone calling their idea of comfort an experiment.
Brooke Bunce is a freshman studying journalism.
4 Opinion
Letter to the Editor
