“Graduation has passed, the kiddies have gone home, and it’s time for another season in Charlottesville: construction season.” –C-VILLE, May 22
“The Alumni Association sent out a fold-out brochure featuring a Wahoo a couple of months ago, resembling something that might adorn the walls at Red Lobster. ‘Maybe it’s hanging on the wall in your home or office right now,’ the e-mail reads. Heck, it might even be stuck on the fridge, if the Wahoo’s yachting aesthetic didn’t totally clash with the typical post-college refrigerator decor of student loan bills, ABC store receipts and pornographic magnetic poetry compositions. The Wahoo swam into the e-mail boxes of young alumni last month, meant to inspire the type of nostalgia that makes one’s hand wander toward one’s checkbook. Despite the annoying gimmicks, it seems a fair number of UVA graduates have gotten reeled in…” –C-VILLE, May 8
I think Meg McEvoy is a great writer– I really do. Her diction and tone make for clever pieces, often illuminating otherwise lackluster topics. She’s creative, too– she has probably identified hundreds of ways that the University of Virginia offends her, personally.
You can imagine that I was impressed to find, then, that she had “525,600 issues with ‘Rent,’” concurrent with the number of minutes in a year. (She’s thorough, too.) This I discovered when I Googled her name on UVA’s website.
She was an editor of the Cavalier Daily, *GASP* a graduated Wahoo of 2006.
Meg, please we know you hate UVA students, but you are one. Stop being a hypocrite!
Why does a journalist who gained her journalistic experience at UVA perpetuate negative stereotypes of UVA?
We know that UVA isn’t perfect, buuuuut… name one school that is. You should be happy that UVA supports the healthy economic environment that makes your C-Ville Weekly employer able to pay you every 2 weeks.
And for the record– not every alum’s refrigerator has pornographic poetry and ABC store receipts on it! Sometimes they have bottle openers and pictures of friends too.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Tagged as: C-Ville Weekly, Charlottesville, Gripes, UVA
I’m gonna go with not-hip. It’s a shame. I’ve noticed this. She’s uniquely positioned to use her journalistic talent to deconstruct negative stereotypes of U.Va., but instead she perpetuates them. “The University” receives under 8 percent of its funding from the state and is subject to state regulations re: the living wage, for example. I think it’s a pretty progressive place.
I also have to say that the mention of wearing a bowtie “smartly” in the news brief about Arthur Garson being named Provost was SO irrelevent and a little rude.
http://www.c-ville.com/index.php?cat=141404064432695&ShowArticle_ID=11043004074114050
Enough of the U.Va. fashion reviews…
And hey, a new writer! Welcome to the party!
Great post and a well-deserved jab. I’m not one to psychoanalyze, but perhaps her deep-seeded hatred of UVa stems from some unpleasantness while she was a student?
In any case, It seems rather feeble to use one’s talents to lambast the very place you were trained and she would be well advised to use her prose to investigate scenes at The Unversity that buck the sterotypes. How about an article on the bus drivers? student DJs? kids working full time jobs during college? etc. etc.
Nice catch, Fearless. Might you know Meg and therefore noticed this theme over the last few months? Goodness knows I didn’t.
When I came to town, I got the feeling that there were the UVA people (including alumni), the native Cville residents, and everyone else. Maybe working for the Cville, Meg’s working with people who aren’t in the UVA group and don’t feel much love for it. Perhaps she’s either being influenced by them or is trying to show that she’s not one of “those kids” anymore?
Then again, maybe she’s just a miserable person who makes pessimistic comments about almost everything.
Ripping on the mothership? Oh, the evilness of it all. Now, who really keeps ABC receipts? Don’t those get in the way of other things mentioned
I say, all the better if she’s a grad of the place she’s criticizing.
I also say, she’s right about a lot of her observations, including the crazy construction phase going on. Ate at Baja Bean last night serenaded by jack hammers. LOVELY.
The irony is so heavy.
“Yes, I was trying to go for a heavy theme, one where the audience would feel as if they were being pulled to the ground”
-from an interview with Bruno, AKA, Baron Cohen
Where’d she go? No bylines in this week’s C-VILLE. ?????
I appreciated everyone’s comments, and I’ve obviously decided neither to confirm nor deny any speculations about my motivations. The only thing I want to add is that at least Meg has the balls to put her name on her articles. That’s pretty cool.
I think it’s strange that people are denouncing Meg McEvoy for criticizing something that shaped her life — wouldn’t she, and others that experienced U.Va., be the most qualified to do the criticizing? If everyone were to fully support every organization that they’ve been a part of, things like the Revolutionary War wouldn’t have happened. Not to mention blogs.
U.Va. is progressive, particularly in that it’s such a wonderful state school. Virginians are truy lucky to have access. However, having just graduated, I also think that the student culture at U.Va. is one of conformity. The negative stereotypes Meg McEvoy touches on have a basis in reality. Part of the distinct sense of uniqueness that U.Va. has comes from the way its students act, dress and drive. But that doesn’t mean we should assume these characteristics are above critique.
I say, atta girl Meg. My ironically-worn-trucker-hat goes off to you.
Meg McEvoy has brass ones. That is all.
Wow this is the worst article ever written for Cvillain. That says a lot.
If you haven’t experience UVA as a non-douche (sorry, couldn’t help myself) then you don’t really know where she’s coming from. It’s tough out there for those of us that don’t conform to the easily-placed stereotypes on the southern, backward camo hat-wearing, Lily Pulitzer-wearing, mom and dad’s credit card-toting students that frequent UVA. Even though we go to this school (which is a great school, education-wise and does have some cool people), it doesn’t mean we automatically fall victim to UVA-itis. I find her articles to be honest, not hypocritical and I say Bravo! Keep up the good work from a fellow spitter.
Ya know, I’m a “townie”, and I recognize that UVA provides us with all kinds of serious culture. You can compartmentalize all you want, but the fact remains that if we didn’t have UVA to stimulate/entertain/educate us, we’d be crozet.
/just sayin
and you forgot the ‘d’
i can’t believe nobody told me there was a backup planet.
@15 i know i know, i was writing that while my roomate was making me watch the amazingly cinematic feature film “Pearl Harbor;” for obvious reasons, I was distracted
@16 I used to keep a few of them around, you know, just in case, but I can’t find the right model number anymore. The one I have now just keeps making this whirring, clanging sound and I can’t get it to stop.
@ 18… a few? At least 26, one would think.
There’s only one 26 world.
26 world…. clearly you do not work in the construction industry. Allow me to fix your malfunctioning planet:
1) If the planet makes a whirring, clanging sound that you cannot stop.. .apply duct tape.
2) If the planet should make a whirring, clanging sound but doesn’t ….. apply WD40.
/Invoice is in the mail. $25 fee for all returned checks.
@16 it was a wedding gift from 43 to jenna and henry - also, I think the Cheney’s own “vacation property” there
and i’m not “malfunctioning”, I’m mall fun shunning.
Malvina Reynolds :
1. Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
2. And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there’s doctors and there’s lawyers
And business executives,
And they’re all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
3. And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.
4. And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.