Every college student with a beating pulse and a Facebook account knows what Odyssey is. And, unfortunately, every college student with a beating pulse and a Facebook account knows "The Odyssey Stereotype."
Just for the sake of being clear, let's define The Odyssey Stereotype. A lot of content shared and reposted by staff writers and readers falls somewhere along the lines of, “An Open Letter To My (pick one: Future Husband, Best Friend, Mother, Chipotle, you get the picture)” or anything to do with Greek life, or “Syllabus Week / Midterms / Finals As Told By (a popular TV show people only know because it's on Netflix).” The vast majority of the content created for Odyssey that most people notice usually follows a predetermined mold that different writers at different universities emulate without changing much content-wise or adding personal touches.
That being said, I do wholeheartedly acknowledge that there is also a decent amount of content on Odyssey with real substance, such as “How Feminism Crippled Hillary Clinton's Campaign” and “Boko Haram Sends Female Suicide Bombers Into Refugee Camp.” Both of these articles are original and insightful, and capture the kind of content Odyssey really wants to produce.
According to Odyssey’s about page, the blog was founded by two Indiana University students who “felt that news and content were either too generic or highly politicized,” and created Odyssey as a tool to prompt synthesis of diverse media content, especially from millennials. Perfect in theory, but completely ironic in practice.
On a site that reportedly was founded to foster diverse points of view and creativity and passion, why is the majority of the visible content on Odyssey almost completely devoid of those things? Odyssey is built on the fantastic “democratic” principles that allow anyone to create anything they want. I was even told that I could write about anything when I joined the team, and that’s part of what drew me to Odyssey.
Yet, it's astounding to see how many variations of similar articles I see on a daily basis every time I scroll through my News Feed. Rarely, if ever, do I see someone sharing an Odyssey article like the two mentioned above. Odyssey has developed a reputation and that reputation caters to: the so-called “basic white girl,” who fantasizes about her future husband, who unconditionally loves her best friend and her mother, who strongly believes that joining a sorority is the best decision she ever made or watches some generic Netflix favorite.
The sad thing about this stereotype is that it is in fact true in a lot of cases. There are some writers who don’t fit the mold, but generally, just reading author profiles and scrolling through the recommended articles gives you a sense of who an Odyssey writer is. And, sadly, she (because in so many cases it’s a she) does not reflect the values Odyssey was built upon.
Granted, no one is perfect, and all Odyssey writers have probably written some "listicle" that could easily have been produced by another person. I've done it. However, I find it shameful that we as a body of 6,000+ content creators have not been able to live up to the expectations Odyssey’s founding principles demand of us. It’s like we’ve completely thrown our goals out the window.
I’m not initiating a call to arms or a revolution, I’m not saying that Odyssey is a shameful publication, and I’m not insulting any of my fellow contributors.
I’m just starting a conversation.
