Law School Classmate appearing semi-nude: Injurious to her classmates?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am proud to be a student at Boston College Law school.

I am not, however, so proud of a fellow student of mine and what she’s chosen to do with our logo.

“Barstool Sports,” a fratboy social-outing sort of publication, has made its March 7th “Cover Model” one of my classmates, a 1L who also did her undergrad here.

Normally, I really don’t care what you do with your own face or likeness, or what (if anything) you wear when you’re getting your picture taken. However, she has begun to attract notice outside our little burg.

Here is a link to a well-read attorneys’ blog that has picked up the story.

Deans’ offices have been flooded with e-mails, and the last person to e-mail every dean (who did so in the same computer lab in which I am sitting) got an out-of-office autoreply to the message; word on the street from people streaming in and out of the computer lab is that the Deans are all meeting together.

I have to tell you all that I feel that this significantly hampers my ability to get a job, because it paints a picture of an irresponsible student body. If I were a woman (and I know some people who are women), I’d be even MORE pissed (and the women I know, are, indeed, pissed).

Although it’s probably telling that the first thing I wondered was “can she legally use BC’s logo and banner in something like this?” (and while you all, especially you legal types, are free to weigh in on that), my main questions are these:

  1. Would you feel ticked at something like this? How ticked?
  2. Why?
  3. Of what gender are you?

Please explain a little bit. I’d like to know whether I’m in a vacuum or whether my being miffed is justified?

2
  1. No. She’s not even naked for Og’s sake. Don’t be such a prude.
  2. Sexy, sexy coeds have a long and proud tradtion of posing nude and semi nude.
  3. Male.

Do you really think this will effect your ability to get a job? Dude, you need to get some perspective.

3

How is that have any effect on your job hunting? You didn’t pose for the picture. I can’t see how the issue would affect you or how a law firm would evaluate your ability.

Not ticked at all. Since I had nothing to do with it, it doesn’t affect me. The model might suffer consequences, but her bad judgment is not my responsibility. (Male.)

4

I’d think one of your professors would have a better shot at the answer to the legal aspect of it. Off hand, I’d think that as long as they’re selling those banners to any old person without making them sign a conduct agreement, what can you do?

  1. I wouldn’t be ticked.

  2. I don’t see how it’s harming anyone. I don’t think she’s impeding your ability to find a job. I think that you will be judged on your own merits. Your grades, your extracurricular activites, etc. After all, A “responsible” student body wouldn’t improve your chances to get a job if you were a slacker.

  3. Female.

5

What’s irresponsible about it?

6

I may be in the minority here but I don’t really see a big problem with it.

I don’t think anyone with half a brain will make the leap as everyone that attends law school with you would pose this way. I don’t think it will have any ramifications on your job search, you will be surprised how quickly this goes away.

She is a very attractive girl, if she wants to pose like that, fill your boots. Now her job search may have some difficulty but why would it effect yours? Because you go to the same school? It’s a big world out there and most of us have not mmuch in common with a lot of the people sharing it.

I am female, btw.

7

Allow me a caveat:

I may have sounded a little bit too tightly buttoned up. However, the concerns I have are these:

  1. Having to answer questions about it in an interview. When you’re one of 3000 people applying for 9 jobs and all you get is a 20 minute interview, figuring out the answer to “why do you want to work here and how do you see yourself contributing?” is difficult enough, without having to determine whether your gatekeeper will want to hear what you REALLY think or a PC answer to, “So, how about so-and-so?”

  2. Character issues on bar applications. Who knows what they look for? If I am required to list every parking ticket I ever got in my life, are the prudes in charge of the vetting process going to look more closely at the little checkers in MY past because they don’t like this?
    Maybe “significantly” was too strong a word. But I still don’t like the idea of some girl selling this idea.

Winston, in response to your posting, coeds, maybe. But I like to think onew would grow out of that before law school. I know one doesn’t always, but a guy can dream.

8

No, not in the slightest.

Because it would have nothing to do with me and because she’s hot.

Male.

I’m having trouble understanding how you think you’re being damaged by this. I think your fear that you would have to answer questions about it in a job interview is just a little paranoid. Even if that were to happen (which I think is highly unlikely), just say whatever you honestly feel about it. It’s not like they can hold you personally responsible for it (and if they’re that uptight, you might not want the job anyway).

Haven’t co-eds been posing with school paraphernalia and logos for years in Playboy magazine?

9

So, you’re training to be a lawyer. Can’t you think of some truthful, but noncommittal, answer, such as: “Well, I think she’s pretty, but I really didn’t have anything to do with her in school or out of school”?

10

Oh, good grief. When I went to school in Boston, BC didn’t exactly have a reputation as party central. If you think you’d have a problem, how about people who go to party schools?

I’ve conducted lots of interviews (not for lawyers) and I’d never, never ask about something like this. The obvious answer for you is to ask how what a classmate did could possibly affect either your education or your performance in the future. I’d tend not to want to work for any company that was clueless enough to ask, myself. As for the morals exam, I doubt it would be an issue even if you were applying for the priesthood, let alone the bar.

MIT is know for hacking. No one ever asked me about if I participated in any hacking during an interview - luckily. Do you think employers freak out after Playboy runs a “Girls of University X?”

The only worry I’d have is if they asked you for her phone number. :slight_smile:

11

You know, if SHE decides to become a stripper, she might be unhappy that your refusal to post sexy photos of yourself on the Internet might lead potential employers to think she went to a buttoned-up nerd factory.

12

HSHP, I really don’t see how this is your problem in any way. Character issues are all about what you’ve done, not about something one of your classmates did.

13

1 I would not feel injured by this in any way.

2 Honor is not something that can be taken from you. Only you can give it away.
3 Male
IANAL nor have I ever applied for a job at a prestigious firm, but I can’t imagine that what this student did, would come into play as they consider you for a job.

14

I’d paint that student body, wink wink.

Seriously, I have nothing against that student… dammit.

Dude, lighten up.

15

So, your worry is that, given a short 20 minutes to interview about a possible position, you’ll be force to spend time on questions about a woman with only the most tenuous connection to you, and that your reaction will somehow decide your chances of employment there.

Tell me: Why would you want to work for a company that’s so focused on the cover of a minorly titilating magazine that they don’t bother to conduct a serious hiring interview?

The first two questions you posed are absurd, and I’m male.

16

  1. Would you feel ticked at something like this? How ticked?
    Not in the slightest.

  2. Why?
    Well, let’s see. It’s her body, and it’s her own damn business. In terms of whatever legal career you may happen to get, believe me, nobody gives a shit about stuff like this. You could be up for legal counsel for Focus on the Family, and they wouldn’t give a shit (although they’d be in a twist about the Jesuit thing…)

  3. Of what gender are you?
    Male.

17

In answer to your questions:

  1. Good golly. Who gives a flying fuck?

  2. I suppose that there is a small possibility that some law firm partner will remember come hiring time that a skinny bleach blonde from the school posed for a fourth rate lads mag, but the idea that will color his or her view of a particular applicant is ludicrous. Playboy has been doing “Girls of the Ivy League” for decades, and I don’t think Harvard’s recruiting office has been hurt. Maybe if this were something that was somehow endorsed by the school or it were something that a large percentage of the student body participated in, it might be of some weight, but one chick covering her boobs with a banner, forget it.

  3. Male.

18

If it were in Playboy or something, I could see your worries, but this mag is not a household name in the first place, so I doubt that most people will even hear about it before it becomes old news. Even if you happen to get interviewed by a bunch of dudes who all happen to subscribe to this mag, I’m pretty sure that most men who look at those pics aren’t going to dwell on the name of the school involved. :wink:

She may end up having problems finding a job if people recognize her from the photos (or read the part about how she’d like to be a housewife), but even so, I don’t think it’s all that much of a scandal for a pretty girl to get photographed in skimpy clothes. If I had a body like that, I’d want to show it off too.

19

Barstool Sports?!?!? Are you kidding me? A free Boston biweekly? Who in the world is even going to remember that a BC student was on the cover, let alone ask about it in an interview? You’re actually worried about this?

The only thing you’d have to worry about is if (a) you looked exactly like the lady in question, and you were afraid you’d get mistaken for her, or (b) you were caught in some compromising pictures with her. Since A is out and B probably is, too… I mean, wow. You’re really serious? Yeesh.

I’m male, btw.

20

I agree you’re overreacting, but I don’t think you’re completely irrational. This will hurt your job search no more than a classmate winning a prestigious prize would help them. That said, if I were a female student with any kind of resemblance to the woman, I might feel a bit more imposed upon. I’m amazed how apparently all women under 40 apparently look alike to men over 55 or so.