SPIDEYVILLE UNLIMITED

No Beard For WVU's Mountaineer

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:56:49 GMT

So every few years WVU picks a new person to be the Mountaineer mascot. And normally it's a guy.

This year it's a girl. And a bunch of douches at WVU are giving her a hard time about it.

Personally I don't care. I'm sure she's able to do the job as well as any man that's been the mascot before her. And she's not the first girl mascot anyway.

But reading articles like this makes me forget we live in 2009. Let her be the Mountaineer people. She's obviously better than you at it.

The Tale of No Beard

Samantha Cossick, Staff Writer

Media Credit: BRAD DAVIS/THE DAILY ATHENAEUM

Rebecca Durst officially started as West Virginia University’s new Mountaineer when she fired the rifle at the Gold-Blue Spring Football Game at Milan Puskar Stadium Saturday.

But some students and fans are still taking shots at her role in a traditionally male position.

The Facebook group “WVU students against beardless mountaineers” has gained more than 1,800 members, and new groups such as “If Rebecca Durst can grow and maintain a full beard, I’ll fully support her” and “Screw you Rebecca Durst” currently have between 20 and 40 members.

“I just think that other schools will make fun of us for having a girl mascot,” said Todd Gutta, a sophomore pre-political science major and member of one of the Facebook groups.

Gutta believes the Mountaineer should have a beard. He added that rival schools like the University of Pittsburgh will definitely make fun of a female Mountaineer.

Mike Baldy, a sophomore, pre-physical education major and Facebook group member, said that he doesn’t like having a female Mountaineer and would rather have both a male and female mascot.

“Last time we had a girl, it didn’t go well,” Baldy said.

When Natalie Tennant was Mountaineer, she was booed and chided for her sex.

Now, she is West Virginia’s Secretary of the State.

Senior Industrial Engineering major and Facebook group member, Brian Combs, said that the Mountaineer mascot is a male position.

He pointed out that all of the emblems portray a male Mountaineer and that it’s traditionally been a male.

Combs said although he was initially upset, he has since warmed to the idea.

“She did the push-ups and everything (at the Gold-Blue Spring Game), and I was impressed,” Combs said.

Durst said that her first event at the Gold-Blue game was amazing and that she was impressed with the fans.

Durst said that she has heard of the criticism directed at her, but she just chooses not to listen.

“I don’t let anything on (Facebook) affect me. People are entitled to their opinions, and if they want to express that on Facebook they can,” Durst said.

But other Facebook groups stand behind Durst, such as “As Long As That Musket Fires, And Fires Often...” and “I Fully Support Rebecca Durst as the New Mountaineer,” which has over 1,700 members.

Other schools within the National Collegiate Athletic Association have had females filling a role traditionally held by a male.

Linda Gooch, spirit program coordinator for the University of Central Florida said that although its mascot is a masked costume of a male knight, they have had females in the costume.

About nine years ago the University had a female companion for the mascot but cut it due to costs.

“We’ve had several very qualified girls in costume,” Gooch said.

In the past 10 years they’ve had at least two female mascots, she said.

But unlike WVU, UCF does not reveal who the mascot is to the student body.

The University of Southern California is known for the Trojan, a traditionally male role.

Rachel Canton, student Assistant in the sports information department, said that the University does not have an official mascot and that the man on the horse is only there for football games and is not a student.

Constance Toffle, a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology, said that the criticism aimed at Durst is ridiculous and that the mascot shouldn’t depend on sex and gender.

Sexism exists because of a lack of knowledge and understanding and works much like stereotypes, Toffle said.

Oftentimes people are not sure what they are criticizing but just feel an anxiety or fear that things will change, she added.

“If people want things to stay the same, they use terms that are derogatory and try not to have them change,” Toffle said. “It’s taking away the ability to be a total person.”

Lupe Live @ FallFest

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:05:14 GMT

This is what Matt and I witnessed the other night. Lupe came into town for WVU's annual FallFest concert and tore it down. E got this excellent footage.

I have a show tonight at 123. Actually it's more like a Morgantown DJz show that I'm performing at. I'm dead tired tho. Hopefully I can find a way to get my energy up before then.

Life As A Blogger Sucks...

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:57:59 GMT

Because I should be doing it more. I'm gonna try to have at least one post a day from now where I actually type something from here until 2009. Not too difficult a task right? Weekends don't count tho. lol.

Went to FallFest last night, which is WVU's big welcome back concert they have every year. Lupe Fiasco was here and he KILLED it. Matt and I weren't in the best spots ever but I saw the whole show thanks to the huge video screen. I studied his show a lot too. Anytime I can soak up some knowledge that's going to make my stage show better, I'll take it.

I've now seen live:
Jay-Z
R. Kelly
Kanye West
Usher
Talib Kweli
Common (for 10 minutes. Stupid thunderstorm!)
Lupe Fiasco
Black Eyed Peas
The Roots
Pete Rock (DJ)
Fatman Scoop (DJ)
Redman
Boot Camp Clik
Memphis Bleek, Freeway, Young Gunz (they all came out during Jay's set, so they count. lol.)

Back in school. Day 2 went fine. Now I just have to get through one more year and a few summer classes and I'm done. Really.

Music is kinda at a standstill. I haven't done a new song since I did a song for DJ Coutz' album. I redesigned my myspace tho. lol. You can check it out at http://www.myspace.com/spideyville and you can also listen to or download The Mind's Mixtape volume Three there. The good news is I've never been more comfortable on stage and my live show is the best it's ever been. I really feel I'm starting to come into my own there.

Matt and I's blog is in the middle of reconstruction. I got a little too happy with trying to post every single new song that came out and I found myself dedicating 5 hours of a recent Saturday just to updating the blog with 2 weeks worth of missed tracks. So I'm reconstructing the site back into form that Matt and I originally invisioned. Johnathan also joined the site as a contributor but he has yet to contribute. lol. You can check that out at http://www.hiphopmanifesto.org. We'll also have the new episode of the podcast soon too.

I have an update I need to do for Marvel Anthology. It's only two issues but anything new is always welcome. I have three issues of Robin I'm about to turn in at DCA. My first issues in over a year and a half. I'm a great writer by the way. lol.

I'm going to be redesigning B Hyphen.com again. lol. I can't find something that I truly like enough to leave it there. But I got some ideas, hopefully something good will come of it.

I also plan on continuing and finishing my Behind The Music series for The Mind's Mixtape volume II and The Thunderstorm Mixtape. Then I can do the one for volume Three. I wanted to start on volume Three but I didn't think it was right to skip two mixtapes.

For now tho, I think that covers all the bases. Here's two facebook photo galleries from my last two shows.
August 7th @ Bucks - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2228249&l=831e6&id=25816698
August 16th @ 123 Pleasant Street - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2228454&l=afad5&id=25816698

Yuck

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:42:23 GMT

So the mixtape's out. Kinda.

It's out on the internet, where it's gonna get distributed the easiest. It's on my website (when the damn thing works, fucking hostony), on last.fm, soon to be on datpiff.com, and it's getting a nice return when you put Mind's Mixtape volume Three on google. I still don't have any physical copies or inserts so I can hand them out at shows or sell it in The Den. Not that I expect to move crazy units, but a little promotion should guarantee some type of change.

The weird thing is, I'm kinda ready to start working on my next mixtape already. Normally I want to take a break, and have nothing to do with music for awhile, but I suppose I reached that point where music is starting to become my job (even though it's not bringing me a dime!) and I want to get back to work again. So after I finish editing the mixtape, I'll probably start working on my next mixtape and hopefully on whatever E keeps telling me is gonna start in January.

I planned on participating in Nanowrimo but the mixtape sucked every free moment I had. I was gonna write that story I was gonna pitch to Dino for his now-defunct Vertigo site based off the title Alias The Spider. I still have my notes and everything so I do plan on starting it. Eventually. Damn music. lol. I also got fanfic I wanna write (like Robin, Ultimate Daredevil) but that too has fallen to the wayside. Not that it hasn't for the longest.

Work still sucks. That is all.

I might be in school in spring. Between Johnny and my dad we'll see.

On a sidenote, I have friends and family that really love me. Someone pointed that out to me recently and I never thought of it that way. They do outrageous things for me, things that I don't even deserve. So I am loved. It's nice to know.

I started drawing Nonsense at work again, but it sucks. I forget what I thought was funny about it in the first place, but nothing is really sticking. It's fun drawing it again though.

Fuck Rich Rodriguez. So wack.

I've been listening to a lot of good music lately. I'm too far back on my monthly reviews but I'll have a best of 2007 list soon.

And let it be known, I fully support the Writers Strike, but damn if they're not fucking up my TV!

Transmission end.

WVU

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 03:14:36 GMT

I have never cared about a football game more than I do now.

One Day It'll All Make Sense

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:14:19 GMT

So Common is going to be at FallFest this year. Clipse and Pete Rock will be in the ballrooms. If things go right and I see all three of these acts, that would make Kanye West, Usher, Jay-Z, R. Kelly, The Black Eyed Peas, The Roots, Boot Camp Clik, Redman, DJ Kool, and Talib Kweli that I've seen live since 2003.

Not bad at all.