Editor:
To quote Janice Kopaunik’s column (“Dress for college success,” April 18): “If you want to be respected, dress the part.”
I don’t have to look at Janice to know that she is not respectable for judging her fellow students as she has, and even more so, for encouraging them to do the same.
Fashion is about self-expression, not intelligence. Fashion is about having fun while fulfilling a function. Fashion is about employing creativity — which takes volumes more intelligence than just checking the weather.
From her profile picture, I would say her style is flat and predictable. However, if this is how she wishes to express herself, by all means! Don’t let me stop her! And if all it takes is a little height to the power of hairspray to distract her attention from “complex math equations,” then I would also say there’s not much intelligence in her bubbly, brunette skull.
Lastly, if she were interested in spending more than three seconds with her colleagues (who are her peers, classmates and readers), she would know that girls quit reading Seventeen in about 8th or 9th grade. Most of them are veteran readers of Cosmopolitan, Elle and Mademoiselle by the time they hit any university campus.
Stilettos or not, everyone is entitled to free speech, and as a journalist, Kopaunik should know better than to encourage censorship of any kind. Especially that of self-expression.
Maria Dennisia WhislerMathematics