Utah Man Vote To Be Held Today
Jan 4, 2014; Salt Lake City, UT, USA Utah Utes fans react during the second half against the Oregon State Beavers at Jon M. Huntsman Center. Utah won 80-69. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports
If outrage porn is your thing, here is something to whip yourself up into a frenzy over.
It seems ASUU, the student government group of The University of Utah, will be considering and likely Utah Man Vote To Be Held Todayvoting on a joint resolution to sent to President Pershing’s office about changing the lyrics to our fight song, Utah Man.
Specifically, the word Man and the Coed Line.
Here is a link to the resolution.
Remember, a resolution is different from a bill. It carries now actual power. Nor does ASUU have the power to change Utah Man. This will simply be sent to the President’s office, where nothing will actually happen.
These are the lyrics to Utah Man:
"I am a Utah man, sir and I live across the green.Our gang it is the jolliest that you have ever seen.Our coeds are the fairest and each one’s a shining star.Our yell, you hear it ringing through the mountains near and far.Chorus:Who am I, sir, a Utah man am I:A Utah man, sir, and will be till I die: Ki! Ki!We’re up to snuff: we never bluff.We’re game for any fuss.No other gang of college men dare meet us in the muss.So fill your lungs and sing it out shout it to the sky.We’ll fight for dear old crimson for…..A Utah Man am I!"
This brings a few thoughts to mind. As I wrote the other day, some of you are now just learning the song has words. Most of words could be changed to mumble mumble mumble and many would never know.
But I think we should admit both sides of the argument here.
First the song is sexist. Second, it is probably the only long held tradition we have at Utah. I’ve written about before how Utah had to rid itself of a lot of traditions, including our old mascot HOYO because they were horribly racist. It’s why Ute fans have stupid arguments over black in the jersey and the awful Crazy Lady as traditions. We have no real traditions, so we try to create them. It’s natural.
Now as I said, Utah Man is sexist but in that way your 80 year old Grandpa calls you sweetie and says you’re pretty the day you graduate from medical school. I think a great compromise would be to keep the word man and change the coed line.
Man has been grown to mean everyone in this context, like mankind (yes I know you can say human kind). Also Utah Fan just sounds stupid.
The Coed line on the other hand is terrible.
Everyone knows the original like was
"We Drink Our Stein of Lager and We Smoke Our Big Cigar"
If we went back to that, it would make our fight song awesome. More to the point, the Coed line is really sexist. It was a term created to refer to women in college as if they didn’t really belong there. And now it’s been utterly co-opted by porn.
“…And each one’s a shining star,” what the hell does that mean.
So if you want Hoyo’s Revenge’s official recommendation. Let’s keep Man and take this as an opportunity to change the worst line in the song which wasn’t a part of the original song anyway.
The Stein of Lager Line would RULE.