Duke University's finest!
About a year ago, I inducted a then 21 year old man by the name of Matthew Clemmens into the inaugural class of this blog's Hall of Fame. There have been plenty of instances of asshole sports fans going too far at a sporting event (just look at the story of those despicable Dodgers fans beating up Giants fan Bryan Stow into a coma earlier this year as an example). However, not many have done so as originally as Clemmens did during a Philadelphia Phillies home game in April of 2010 when he actually vomited right into a cop and his 11 year old daughter when he became pissed that they started to complain about the unruly and obscene voices they made during the match. It was a story so shocking and so unbelievable (how could something really do such a thing?) while also reaffirming the negative stereotype of Philadelphia sports fans that I just had to induct him for it.
I bring Clemmens up in this post because he is a man that was the least recognizable face of the group out of the rest of the 2010 class. Whereas the rest of that Hall of Fame class included famous celebrities like Tiger Woods and Conan O'Brien, prestigious writers like Bill Simmons and notable politicians like Mark Sanford and Alvin Greene, Clemmens was a man who (before that incident) was just some white-crash nobody living in Cherry Hill, N.J.. Since the incident..well, he's still a white-trash nobody, but at least now he's a white trash nobody with an infamous act of vulgarity in his permanent record that sent him to jail for a few months. He was an individual whose story outside any others that might have been given a Person of the Week here or a "Tiger Woods Saga of '09 Memorial Story of the Week" there, at least in this writer's opinion.
In other words, Clemmens was to the 2010 Hall of Fame class as tonight's inductee, Karen F. Owen (who previously got mentioned in this blog as a runner-up for Person of the Week and on the list of the most memorable people of 2010), is to the 2011 Hall of Fame class.
Before the fall of 2010, Ms. Owen was nothing more than a plain looking, ex-college co-ed in her early twenties who, in the past spring, finally graduated as a student of Duke University. But then, on one faithful day in September of 2010, Owen's powerpoint presentation thesis that she has completed and presented four months earlier was released of public viewing. Since then, that name has forever gone down into infamy as the creator of one of the strangest and most ambitious college theses ever.
In this thesis-like powerpoint document titled "An Education Beyond the Classroom: Excelling in the Realm of Horizontal Academics" (a more fancier way to name "f@ck ratings list"), Owen presented a report that spanned her entire four year experience at Duke in which she made a list of thirteen student athletes at the school she had sex with and then evaluated their performance on a scale of one to ten in categories ranging from their penis size to how aggressive and Danny Woodhead-esque gritty they were in the sack. The women issues centered blog Jezebel was the first to present the thesis for the entire Internet public to see for their viewing pleasure. Here is a YouTube slideshow of Owen's 42-point thesis, courtesy of account holder "s31leg":
As you can see, Owen was not afraid to criticize those who just treated her like a place to put their penis in and to praise those who did a good job. Since her thesis was released to the public, Owen has since become quite an infamous name in Duke University lore (because how often be so bold and so naive of possible backlash to do such a thing?). In addition to this instant fame (or infamy, depending on how you view it), Owen has also received a few legal troubles courtesy of the men whose name have been mentioned in the thesis, as well as potential book and movie deals. However, considering how the story has been blown off for the past few months and that Owen has remained quiet from the spotlight, it's hard to imagine that any of these things mentioned will proceed for a while.
So, what do we make of the Owen story now that it has been a full ten months since her thesis, one the most interesting things to pop up in this year in The mj15 Blog's short history, went viral? Well, for one thing you have to admire the girl's boldness and lack of critical thinking to actually forego any attempt of doing a more respected, less Harlequin thesis in favor of, well...the thing that she eventually end up presenting to the university for review. After all, for someone who went to Duke she really was blind of any possible consequences if her powerpoint were ever to be released (and since hers was so juicy, I don't see why it ever would have remained hidden). Second, it was certainly one of the most interesting stories to have been released in the last 12 months, joining the Northwestern sex-toy demo scandal as one of the strangest stories to come out of this past school year. Finally, whether you consider Owen a sad figure or a hero, at least we can all agree that it is something that will take the woman a long time to make people forget of this dark moment in her life. And, unfortunately, I think I may have just made that even more harder to do short term.
Two more left before the 2011 Hall of Fame inductions are finally completed. Be sure to come back tomorrow to see ho is next. In the meantime, enjoy a safe and happy Friday!
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15
If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you just have any suggestions or tips for my next blog entry, e-mail me at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.
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