Dear Scantily Clad Penn Students,

Never before have I seen so much Penn flesh in one week. For those of you who aren’t aware, this week we had two body-centric events at our illustrious institution: on Tuesday, there was the Mr./Ms. Penn Competition in the Zellerbach theater, and on Thursday, there was the Big Man on Campus contest downtown at Trocadero. Here’s a quick rundown of the two events: Skin, muscles, and lack thereof. At a school that is so highly esteemed for its academic caliber (as a College student, I thank the Wharton community for keeping up our rankings,) I never would have guessed that among us are several men and women whose back muscles look like well-oiled challah bread when they flex, and who would be willing to stand up on a stage in front of hundreds of people in nothing more than a 2-inch wide piece of shiny spandex. At Mr./Ms. Penn, I got to see parts of bodies that I never even knew existed before. Apparently the contestants didn’t drink water for a while before the competition, because dehydration makes your muscles pop. They also trained for weeks at the gym, and came up with original flexing routines for the show. Honestly, they probably spent more time getting their bodies ready for this thing than I’ve spent on all four of my classes combined this semester.

And then there’s BMOC. Even though this charity event was not supposed to be about how defined your biceps are, it was clear that some of the men up there considered that to be their best asset, and flaunted it as such. Of course, others went for the comedic route, and showed much more of their...shape...than anyone wanted to see. Luckily this event was not alcohol-free. But, again, I have to hand it to those guys for really putting themselves out there in a way I wouldn’t be willing to do even if you threatened to take away my Vh1 for a month. (A year – maybe.) The number one human fear is that of standing in front of a crowd, but apparently these guys never got that memo. And, unlike, Mr./Ms. Penn, they were showing off what they had, no matter what state it happened to be in.

In these two flesh-fests, I see the opposite ends of the Penn student spectrum. You’ve got your toners, your workers, your study-till-you-drop-and-then-grab-a-Redbull-to-keep-going-ers, and then you’ve got your proud slackers, who show up at the test without ever having read the material, and then either somehow miraculously ace it, or deservedly fail it, but honestly don’t care because they’re happy either way. I’m impressed with all of them – not for how hard they work or party, but rather, with their self-confidence and awareness. These two competitions were about more than just their bodies for those students: they were about their pride in themselves and in their abilities. Both groups were willing to stand on those stages, take off their clothing, and let the world judge, for better or worse. If only we all had that kind of courage.

Your fully-clothed editor in chief,

Shira Bender