People can stop reading it, but they can’t stop it from being published.

Last week about five members of the NIU Woman’s Alliance asked people to stop reading the DeKalb Nite Weekly and recycle it for Earth Day. The Nite Weekly is a newspaper that features female NIU student models.

To support their cause, the protestors took the right angle by discouraging people from reading the publication, which they deem as sexist. However, encouraging people not to read it will accomplish little if anything at all besides providing the paper with free publicity. Some who might not have known about the paper before might even start picking up a copy now that they have been introduced to it.

If the Woman’s Alliance is against the exploitation of women, it should not be targeting the Nite Weekly; they should be targeting all women. Nite Weekly Publisher Frank Trebusak is not at fault for printing pictures of women who volunteer their services. He is only doing what he feels is the best way to get his publication read, and therefore make advertising dollars.

One of the Nite Weekly’s advertisers even admitted she did not necessarily like the contents of the newspaper, but she uses the publication to reach the college market.

Like it or not, the Constitution allows Trebusak to print in Nite Weekly everything he is printing now. If the Woman’s Alliance doesn’t like to see the female models, instead of giving the paper more publicity, it should encourage women everywhere not to become models—better yet, don’t pick up the paper.