Students tear down WRC messages

THE ISSUE: Students put image over awareness WHAT WE THINK: Campus culture needs re-evaluation

From Nov. 1 through this Friday, the Women's Resource Center sponsored Love Your Body Week. The WRC has taken this week to explore issues of body image in terms of fitness, nutrition, race, and spirituality - a noble endeavor on a campus that is notoriously obsessed with physical appearances.

In an attention-grabbing move, the WRC covered the mirrors in the McElroy women's restrooms with brown paper. They bore inspirational messages: "Do you know how beautiful you are?" "Nothing new here." "Today, try looking inside."

Almost immediately, the paper was torn down. Some argued that covering mirrors is an ineffectual way of teaching students about body image. But the act of physically tearing down a positive message - no matter how symbolic - should make us even more uneasy about our campus culture.

If Boston College women can't go without a mirror for a week, then how can we expect them to confront the real issues? The deeper problems are emotional and psychological - and they aren't just limited to women. Coupled with this week's panels and events, the covered mirrors should have inspired conversations instead of denial.

If the people who ripped down the paper did so in an effort to see themselves more clearly, then perhaps they should have left it up.