Kalysha Clark

My university, North Carolina State University, won a contest with Cosmopolitan Magazine which gave us the opportunity to have a party bus filled with male models to shuttle students to the closest polling location.

I and a friend decided we would check out the event, grab a free t-shirt and take our picture with a hot male model. Because let's be honest, free stuff is a college student's best friend.

Some people, mainly the right-wing conservatives, aren't exactly happy about Cosmo's effort to Get Out the Vote. Take a look at this. The rest of my post will be in response to that article. That's me in the photo (in the center) flanked by my friend Jason (on the left) and a super hot male model (on the right).

There exist many people in these great United States who are shallow, unintellectual, and easily influenced by whatever is socially acceptable. And it’s precisely these people who will turn out to vote for the promise of a neon “Voting is Sexy” t-shirt.

I suppose that my want for free t-shirt is definitely an indication of my shallow, unintellectual and easily-influenced nature. Except it's not. Anyone who knows me would describe me as the opposite of those things. I could take a second to mention that I graduated in the top five percent of my class in high school and that I am attending on of the top 100 universities in the United States with a GPA good enough to allow me to graduate with honors. But it's not just that.

In a perfect world, the masses would be politically engaged, watch candidate debates, spend time over scotch and cigars discussing the issues du jour and then head to the polls to make a careful and rational decision on who should represent their interests.

So just because I showed up to take my picture with a hot model means that I didn't do those things? Incorrect. I actually did watch the candidate debates and spent extensive time online doing research on the candidates and their platforms because there's a lot at stake for this election: women's reproductive rights, clean air and water, education, and more. Trust me when I say that I did what you imagine individuals would in a perfect world (save for the scotch and cigar because I'm not really into alcohol or smoking. Besides, I wouldn't want to impair my judgement before I went to the polls!).

To the former, I’m not sure the intelligentsia are the ones flocking to snap a pic with a buff model holding a “CosmoVotes” sign

Except they are! Which is exactly why my friend Jason and I were there.

Those already polically engaged in college are likely in some way, shape, or form, tangentially involved in a campus political club

Wrong. We can't all be involved in as many clubs as we'd like. Some of us have to work multiple part-time jobs to pay our way through school while also juggling full-time schoolwork AND clubs that are relevant to our careers. So just because I'm not in the College Democrats Club at my school doesn't mean I'm not politically engaged in college.

Also at issue here is the nexus of “feminism” and a Cosmo-style GOTV push. “What kind of message does it send to young women when they’re bribed to vote by hot men?!” the right posits. “How hypocritical is the left that the cry feminism and then use sexuality to lure votes!?”

I think you have the wrong definition is feminism. At its roots, feminism is about equality among the sexes. In a world where women are frequently sexualized to sell items and ideas (see here as just one example), it's rare to see men being sexualized. And in our case, at least everyone kept their clothes on and it was for a worthy cause.

At the end of the day, I’m not opposed to having a party bus full of hot male models accompany me to the polls to make my careful and rationally decided ballot choices. Sounds like a great time. 

If you're not opposed to the event, then why did you feel the need to call out and tear down its attendants? It was a great time. I got a free t-shirt, a photo with a sexy male model and voted for candidates that I wanted to vote for based on my own research and decisions.