About Us
I do not have a mustache. I do not get swole at the Plex. I don’t like Muscle Milk and I’ve never been good at Super Smash Brothers. Strictly speaking, it would be fair to say that I am NOT a dude.
I do like bracelets and impractically large purses. I pound the Chobanis and frequent the elliptical a la the Plex. Strictly speaking it would be fair to call me a chick. So how can I #BeADude, when I’m clearly a yoga loving, nail polish addicted, dress wearing chick?
Here’s how. Despite my chick-ness, I love football. Possibly even more than half of you dudes at this school. I know the difference between a Shotgun Formation and a Pistol Offense. I can sit down on any given Sunday and watch eight hours of straight football, no problem. If given the opportunity, I can and will tell you exactly why it’s ridiculous that Tom Brady ranked lower than Dan Marino and Johnny Unitas in Fox Sports’ “Top 10 QBs of All Time.”
Image via bcathletics Instagram
So maybe while I am, technically speaking, not a dude, I can still #BeADude. Head Coach Steve Addazio has championed the hashtag as the new motto of the 2013 Eagles football team. He described the philosophy behind the accidental catchphrase in an interview with ESPN saying, “…what being a dude is is being a baller. You know? Just being a real baller. Just being a dude… Just don't be average."
I’ve heard the phrase thrown around a lot on campus. Some people seem a little confused by the mantra. Fox Sports described the #BeADude campaign as “confounding.” Most students don’t even seem to get it. I heard one student, who shall remain nameless, describe the phrase as being a “little homoerotic.” But the problem we’re all creating, myself included in the beginning of this article, comes with assigning a gender to the word “dude.”
In order to #BeADude we need to think of dude in the Ashton-Kutcher-sense of the word. We need to revert to middle school terminology for a while here.
Gif via Tumblr
A dude can be a man, a woman, a person who is transgender. A dude can be a cartoon turtle named Crush. Anyone and everyone has the inner capability to #BeADude, it’s just a matter of unleashing your potential to be the best you can be. A dude as defined by Urban Dictionary, the premiere authority on hip linguistics, is “something that's just so awesomly cool, amazingly kick a**.”
Okay, I can do that! I can #BeADude if being a dude means being “awesomely cool.” In fact, you can #BeADude too. Every member of the football team can #BeADude. Coach Addazio can #BeADude, and in my opinion he already #IsADude for implementing such a different athletic culture here on campus in less than a year.
Did I mention he quotes Bill Bellichick the way some people quote Eleanor Roosevelt or Martin Luther King Jr.? What a dude. We must all strive to achieve such enlightened levels of dude-hood, dude.
Maybe you’re not into football, and maybe you’ve got a bone to pick with Steve Addazio regarding his word choice and the disintegration of the English language. You don’t have to approve of the word “dude.” You don’t need to like football to #BeADude. But you should try and be a part of this exciting new athletic culture on campus. The football team hasn’t been this energized in years, and other sports are sure to profit from the administration’s new outlook as well. Success is fun. Whether you’re a bro or a chick, just embrace it and #BeADude.
Featured image courtesy of bcgavel Instagram.Like what you see? Join The Gavel here!
School, major and year: A&S, English, 2015
Hometown Charlton, MA
Favorite Beyonce lyric: "I probably won't make no money off this, oh well."
