University of Waterloo’s ‘Bikinigate’

For the past week auto blogs and social networking sites have been buzzing about the suspension of the University of Waterloo’s FSAE team after one of its members took photos with the car clad in a bikini and high heels.

The model is an engineering student herself and helped design and build the car she is pictured with here.

The photo was taken in the newly opened Student Design Center. The photographer (another engineering undergrad student) posted some of the photos on an online photography website. After the administration found the pictures online, action was prompted that led to the eventual suspension of the team.

The FSAE team is student run, sponsor funded, and builds a racecar from scratch. The administration has suspended the team until June 1. The team was set to race at a competition in Michigan in May, but will be forced to miss out. Sponsors of the team have subsequently spoken out against the heavy-handed administration, saying that a warning would have sufficed.

The student was intending to use the photos as part of her application package for a calender, the aim of which was to promote the beauty, accomplishments and intelligence of university students. A portion of the proceeds would have gone to support cancer research. She has since stepped down from her leadership position on the student team and has apologized to the Dean.

When the suspension was first announced, the reason stated was for unauthorized use of  a student space. It also stated possible safety concerns. However, in an interview the Dean of Engineering later said that the photos were “denigrating to women.” He described the bikini pose as “a setback” to the outreach activities of the school to promote engineering as a profession for women and promote a friendly, welcoming environment for all.

As a current engineering undergrad at the school in question (and part of the 17-18% that identifies as female) I am joined by my peers in a collective cry of: “huh?”

The use of the student car and location were unfortunate decisions, for which all involved parties have admitted to and apologized for. However, effectively barring the team from participating in a race that they have spent countless hours preparing for (p.s this ain’t no soapbox racer) over an incident of misuse of school property and student space is heavy handed. The Dean’s quotes make you think that this decision has more to do with politics then policies.

As life usually goes, this isn’t cut and dried. This event follows in the wake of several anti-women posters and emails that have rocked the school community the past four months. Anonymous posters have attacked woman leaders on campus and emails sent anonymously (or impersonating faculty members) sent to students and faculty have questioned women’s leadership abilities and even their place in higher education. The aim was to “expose the defective moral intelligence of womankind” and falsely state that Marie Curie is the Mother of the atomic bomb. [Caveat: it’s also spurned lots of forums and discussions about sexism in engineering and on campus, which has subsequently melted my frozen, feminist heart.]

In choosing to show off both her femininity and engineering prowess the model in question has bravely stood up to campus bullies. She stands for all of us who say: “You can make threats, but I am here and I’m going to keep kicking ass regardless.”

Or, she’s just voluntarily posing for a photo in a bikini that is no more revealing than anything you’d see at a beach.

To the university I say this: some extra-curricular photos done by one of your current female engineering students is not going to hurt your outreach activities nearly as much as your subsequent policing of women’s presentation and suspension of the team. She is of legal age. She volunteered. While I understand the political atmosphere at the school is sensitive, your students are paying for this knee-jerk reaction. It is not your decision what is and is not “denigrating to women.”

It is a girl. And a bikini. And a racecar. It’s not a big deal. Let the team race.