Monday, November 17, 2008

St. Ed's Homepage All Sorts of Messed Up

I noticed a couple of weeks ago that St. Edward's had changed the picture on their homepage. I realize it's important that they update consistently, to show students, parents, and alumni what's new and what's happening on campus. Usually the pictures are of smiling students, some of them recognizable (which never surprises me--it is a tiny campus), sitting on a grassy patch, you know, just learning to think, mouths open in broad smiles.

So why does the new picture on their homepage look like a scene from a Lifetime movie?? A naive students falls into a dangerous relationship with her Chemistry teacher. Is it just lust or can their love survive against all odds?


Thanks to the myriad of courses I've taken that have forced me to wear an analytical lens, I can say that this picture is rhetorically wrong in so so many ways.
Who is the young woman and what exactly is she saying with her eyes to her professor? Look closely. Her dark eyes are half lidded, thickly lined and she could be listening attentively, sure, but I think her face says other things. And that's not just me being perverse! The point is, we're left to figure it out for ourselves because there's nothing, not even a caption to put this scene into context. Are these two learning to think or learning to do something else?

And, what does the Homecoming, which I would suppose may be the context of this picture (??) have to do with the scene. Wouldn't it be more effective to emphasize the fact that Homecoming is approaching with a picture of the past Homecoming?

Seeing a group of toothy students enjoying the lawn never gave me problems. I suggest the next time St. Ed's updates their page, the person in charge gets a second opinion before putting up a picture that has people wondering...

1 comment:

Eugene said...

Their Christmas one is shitty too. It looks like they stole it from Sears.