University Store lacks lingerie

I am writing to express my disappointment with the extreme gender bias that exists in the provision of goods by the Duke University Store. At important this time of the year, I, like many other hard-working boyfriends, turned to the Store for help in my quest for the ideal Christmas present for that girl who occupies the most important place in my heart. In my case, she happens to be many, many thousands of miles away in Europe, and I have not heard her sun-filled laugh or seen her wonderful smile for several months now-- not since mid-August, in fact.

Imagine my disappointment, then, when I discover that every single item in the Store is for men, or is such that it is for men, but can be worn by women, or else is unisex.

Quite apart from the teeshirts, the sweats and the baseball caps, I can buy, for example, Duke boxer shorts, Duke underwear or Duke "slips" in various sizes and in either white or black colors. But there is absolutely no Duke lingerie.

Why is this? It is not as though there were some kind of policy to not include such kinds of clothing items because they are not sportswear--for there are numerous kinds of male underwear available which have nothing to do with sports. If I were a Duke girl buying something for my loved one, I could purchase any amount of the equivalent goods for him. So why the overt discrimination against men? Why can I not buy a Duke bra, or a Duke nightdress or some such item?

In the end, I was forced to buy unisex items for my sun goddess. I shall be flying thousands of miles across the Atlantic to my home to see her without a really special gift, and I shall have to explain at length the bias of the Store and why I was not able to get her what I wanted.

But I call upon all the Duke students--male and female--to rise up in protest at the outrageous discrimination of the Store against hard-pressed boyfriends. Please--let this not happen again next Christmas.

James Edwin Mahon

Department of Philosophy