As a year and a half long member of the Emerald street team, part of my job is to read the paper and highlight great stories that will spark interest and further promote readership among fellow students. Despite the cold, rainy winters and hundreds of issues that I’ve handed out, today was the first day that I could not feel proud about doing my job.

As couples excitedly approached me expecting to see the traditional Valentine’s Day Emerald filled with a multitude of romantic articles, they glanced at the “Men are Failing” cover and walked away shaking their heads. As a man who is neither an alcoholic, rapist nor drop-out, I take the cover’s generalization very offensively and want it to be clear to those that see this letter that I in no way support this style of journalism.

Following the jump to the inside story, readers are greeted by a photo layout portraying stereotypes and further promotion of a male stigma that mediums nationwide deepen every day: All fraternity brothers are alcoholics, all jocks are aggressive men with a potential to be rapists, and all hipsters will probably drop out of school before they graduate. How is a cover and photo layout that is so far away from the actual intention of the story supposed to help men with the way they “suppress their feelings,” and furthermore, how is that an appropriate cover story for Valentine’s Day?

Along with being a member of the Emerald street team, I am also a journalism major here at the University of Oregon as well. Knowing what writers and page editors of the Emerald are going through both in their classes and at work, (I edited various pages for my All-American high school newspaper, The Bruin) I was extremely surprised to see such a blatant generalization on the front cover; one of the big “don’t do’s” students are taught in the gateway sequence. Though I understand the shock factor technique of having the headline read, “Men are Failing,” wouldn’t the women’s activist groups on campus go up in arms had it said “Women are Failing”? If the purpose of this article is to show that there is a place for men to get help if they are struggling, I feel like putting it in a negative light on the front cover of the Valentine’s Day issue was a very poor way of expressing that alternative.

I have always loved the Emerald and still thoroughly enjoy being a part of the street team, but I will not let poorly thought out layout styles and generalizations such as this, be published without saying something about it.

Thanks for your time,

Dominic Allen