Outside the lines

"i plan on killing the b- as soon as [they] walk in and proceeding to cut their skin off while c- in my duke issue spandex."

The most distressing thing about Ryan McFadyen's e-mail is that it would seem pretty mundane coming from any large, all-male listserv on this campus. His words are symptomatic of a norm for behavior, a picture of the sort of humor and language that pervades the so-called "culture of crassness" on this campus. When this imagery is framed differently, in light of an alleged sexual assault, we begin to see it as a shockingly graphic manifestation of aggression, violence and elitism.

Our discourse on this campus is, to a large extent, shaped by our commitment to pervasive images of who and what Duke is about. We reach toward ideal images of what our life at Duke should be-ideals of crass, sophomoric behavior, "effortless perfection" or academic excellence-and often get lost in trying to draw ourselves inside the lines. We become captives to a picture, and we cannot get outside it or see past it. It is difficult, if not impossible, to realize that we are turning ourselves into caricatures in the process.

I am a photographer, first and foremost. I've spent the past four years taking photos for The Chronicle as a photojournalist, a documentarian and a student. I deal in photographs-in images-and I'm no stranger to both their power and their limitations. After these four years of looking at the Duke community, this is what I've found:

Duke is dominated by the culture of the image. This phenomenon is exemplified in our reaction to the lacrosse scandal and our concern for Duke's reputation. However, even in the everyday we find ourselves trapped before different images and ideals, with no way to look beyond them. We mistake percipi for essi, trying to reify these images within ourselves without even evaluating them first.

How many times have you thought about how your résumé will look to a potential employer? Is your GPA high enough? Have you had enough leadership positions, and good enough internships? Are you going to fit the description of a standout applicant for your first choice law school, grad school, or i-bank? I know too many students that have spent four years trying to craft an image that will allow them to "take the next step"-at the expense of enjoying their time here at Duke.

I hardly have to mention problems with body image on this campus; the number of hours we spend running nowhere on treadmills in Wilson is staggering. "Effortless perfection" hasn't gone away, nor have we gotten outside the image of the perfectly thin girl, or the massively muscled boy. The extent to which these images dominate social life at Duke is astounding.

Finally, the much talked about "culture of crassness." The phrase has been picked up by the national media as a perfect characterization of Duke students. While I don't think that such a culture is endemic here, it is certainly present to an uncomfortable degree. The humorous, irreverent picture of social life we idealize-of KY wrestling matches, nights spent pounding drinks at Charlie's, even tellings of potentially offensive jokes-can land us in dangerous territory, as recently evidenced by Sigma Chi's "Viva Mexico" party and the Lacrosse scandal.