Upon reading this article numerous times, I turned to the first pages of Image Magazine, hoping to receive a better understanding of the magazine and what it is attempting to represent and report. Unfortunately, nothing in the entire publication could comfort my distress and embarrassment after reading such a shocking and entirely misleading article.

Ky Lewis, editor-in-chief of Image Magazine, writes on page two of this publication that he “would like (the reader) to take on the underlying message, however subtle it may be, and look at how different we all are …,” a truly admirable sentiment, for we are all different and are encouraged to celebrate said differences.

How, then, did he and the other editors of Image Magazine allow such a sweeping generalization of 63 percent of the TCU student population to be printed?

If the intention was “to see TCU interact with” Image, as Mr. Lewis hoped, then I have no doubt this has been a highly successful venture.

Unfortunately, I no longer regard Image Magazine as an accurate representation of my university and am unable to accept it as a legitimate work of journalism.

There are so many distressing issues this commentary raises, one of the greatest being the reflection on our time.

In the musical version of “Little Women,” adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s novel by composer Jason Howland, author Allan Knee and librettist Mindi Dickstein, the character Jo March is told “to return home and have babies. That is what women are made for.”

Can TCU truly claim to be “learning to change the world” if publications such as Image Magazine are supporting ideas that are 142 years old?

I desperately hope that a woman who graduates from an outstanding university such as this will gain more in her time here than a desire to “be coy and bat (her) eyelashes.”

The TCU faculty and staff have given me the assurance and the drive to pursue a life that not only includes solid relationships with friends and significant others, but a life that also embraces a love for what I am studying and a confidence that I can achieve success and happiness with or without someone else by my side.

I have always been taught that being a woman is empowering, not a hindrance, and yet, I find myself reading an article in a publication – representing this very same university – encouraging me to “embrace being a woman” by “searching for an apron.”

How upsetting that these shallow, outdated generalizations are embodying an institution that so many of us place our faith and trust in each day. If Ms. Blunk wishes to let her $30,000-a-year education “collect dust in the basement,” then I completely support her right to do so; she is entitled to whatever life she chooses.

However, I do ask that she and Image Magazine apologize to the entire TCU community for misrepresenting the percentage of women who choose to lead their lives with goals, success and above all, passion.

Blake Robertson is a junior theater major from Snyder.