Written by Riley Hutchings
On Sept. 15, Colorado College senior Jade Frost published an article arguing that the culture on this campus body shames men who are not in good physical shape through the school’s food programs, gender segregation in the gym, and promotion of outdoor activities.
Frost is a senior majoring in Feminist and Gender Studies here at CC. This summer, the school funded her internship with The Feminist Wire—a website critiquing “anti-feminist, racist, and imperialist politics pervasive in all forms and spaces of private and public lives of individuals globally.” They were the first to publish her article “When You’re Not Physically Masculine: Colorado College’s Body Privilege.”
In the last couple of weeks, Heatstreet, The College Fix, Barstool Sports, The Nationalist Review, and many students have responded negatively to the article.
Frost’s argument is based on the assumption that a man’s goal is to be masculine. She argues that by encouraging healthy eating and exercise, Colorado College is painting masculinity as being physically fit, and instead masculinity should encompass other forms of strength. She claims that this idea of physical masculinity leads to out-of-shape men feeling body shamed.
“Let’s dismantle the idea that your body is the only way to show that we are strong,” the final sentence in Frost’s article reads. “We need to apply these notions to male students as they come onto campus. Let them know that they do not need to assimilate to the culture and that we don’t associate their masculinity to their body type.”
Frost has three main sources of evidence for her assertion that CC promotes physical masculinity. Firstly, she writes that our “Tigers Don’t Waste” program in place to reduce food waste promotes body shaming.
Her argument begins with her assumption that masculinity at CC is equated with physical fitness. She says that physical fitness requires control, so by asking students to control what they eat, we are supporting physical fitness and in turn supporting the culture of physical masculinity. “If a man shows signs of consumption, then he is showing that he does not have control over his body. If he does not have control over his body, then how can he be masculine, if masculinity is about being in control?”
Student-athlete David Eik countered, “I think she misinterprets the purpose of the ‘Tigers Don’t Waste’ program… it’s a conservation effort, not health oriented at all.”
Secondly, Frost claims that in CC’s gym, “there is an unspoken rule that the cardio section is for the feminine and the weight room is for the masculine.” Eik mostly disagreed with this assertion. “I think that’s an issue seen in all gyms across the country and in fact I think at CC it’s not as big of an issue as most other gyms,” he said. “I use the cardio room all the time, as in every day of my life, and I’ve never seen that as a shot to my masculinity at all.”
Frost provides no evidence that this gender segregation exists at CC.
Finally, Frost argues that outdoor events exclude unfit males. Naomi Tsai, the Resident Advisor of the Outdoor Education Living Learning Community, disagrees. Hall events this year have included one short hike at Red Rocks Open Space, a review of the Leave No Trace principles, and group viewings of kayaking videos. Every First Monday the hall eats pancakes together, and starting this block they will have Wednesday cereal breakfasts—all events are inclusive of all types of people.
“With any outdoor activity there is a certain level of fitness that is beneficial, but even if you’re not at that level of fitness or you don’t have the perfect body, you can still participate and you can still learn how to do something,” said Tsai.
Frost specifically claims that Winterfest and Breakout Trips are specifically geared towards men who are physically in shape. In contrast, Tsai said, “Winterfest is kind of all over the place, like you get people who ski a lot, and people who have never skied before and people who go and don’t even ski the whole weekend—they’re just there to kind of hangout with everybody else.”
Tsai has also been on a Breakout Trip, which are entirely community service trips. During hers, volunteers drove to the Marion House and served soup. Tsai said, “I feel like anybody could participate in a Breakout Trip… The program was very flexible. You could take breaks; you could switch stations with people if needed.”
The response from campus is similar to that online. Many comments included remarks against body shaming, but almost everyone disagreed that CC’s food waste movements, gym, and outdoor activities (or otherwise) could possibly be seen as adverse.
Frost declined to interview with the Catalyst, stating in an email, “I think [the article has] spoken a great deal for itself.”