THE FINAL WORD: MASCOT MATTER

by ELIZABETH FETTER and JJ STOEN design by ELIZABETH FETTER and YASMIN FRIEDRICHOWITZ

Two staff writers take on a contentious question: mascots. This special edition of “The Final Word” showcases two different opinions on the ethics, image, and history of Palo Alto High School’s. The column on the left is written by our usual JJ Stoen and argues for keeping the Viking as it is. The column on the right is written by a guest, EIC Elizabeth Fetter, and advocates for a few changes to Paly’s figurehead.

Since 1929, the mascot of Palo Alto High School has been the Viking. While there isn’t much backstory to this name, the Palo Alto Viking name has been an unchanging staple to athletics and academics for decades. However, many question the meaning of the Viking mascot and while some valid points are present, it would just be far too difficult to launch a name change.

Top opponents to the Viking name call the mascot meaningless, as Vikings have no correlation with Palo Alto. They also slam the Viking mascot for being unrepresentative of what Paly is, as the vikings were famous for raiding towns in ruthless fashion. They ask “why would we want these savages to represent our school?”. While these ideas raise some relevant points, the Viking has simply been around for too long to change.

The iconic Viking has been posted and immortalized all around campus (the football field being the most famous example), across our school’s websites, and even takes the title of our magazine and website. With such a legacy, it would take years, even decades to get used to a rebrand, not to mention the copious amounts of time and money that would be required to put into the name change. Also, while Vikings may have been brutal warriors, would argue that it is the relentless fighting spirit of the Viking that Paly has adopted over the years. The name Viking has aroused fear in the hearts of our com petitors for decades now, much as the real vikings did during their conquest of Europe in the Middle Ages. Instead of looking at the negative traits that the vikings held, why not praise the positives in order to glorify our school a little bit?

In addition, the chant “Sko Vikes” is instantly recognizable, with all Paly athletic teams adopting it as their official cheer before and during games. Often led by Superfan Dan, this cheer is simply a fun way to bring everyone together in support of our beloved school which has been present for years. The motto “one ship” represents the bonds between members of our Paly student body and staff, illustrating that we’re all in this together (High School Musical reference).

Another aspect of the Viking that has been im- mortalized is the collection of the athletes who wore the Viking uniform. When we think of our most famous athletes that came through this school such as Davante Adams, Joc Pederson, and Jeremy Lin, we instantly associate them with the Viking name. The athletes following in their footsteps have an opportunity to carry on their legacies in the Viking uniform, and changing the mascot would sever any chance of carrying on a Viking legacy. There is simply too much dominance and too much tradition held by the Viking name to break it.

In conclusion, it all comes down to the people who represent the name. Even if the name gets changed somewhere down the line, I’m quite sure that if you ask anyone who came through Palo Alto High School, they will be proud to say that they were a Viking, they will be remembered as a Viking, and they will forever be a Viking.

The Oxford language dictionary defines “Vikings” as “any of the Scandinavian seafaring pirates and traders who raided and settled in many parts of northwestern Europe in the 8th–11th centuries.” Some may argue that having this as our figurehead, especially for athletics, is what we want. As “Paly Vikings,” we want to show other sports teams unparalleled determination, aggression, and ferocity in the pool, across the fields, or on the track. But I remind these individuals that the Viking represents Paly in more than sports. It is supposed to represent who we are as a community, who we are as individuals, and who we are as people. Does the Viking do this? While the answer might initially seem to be a resounding “no,” the holistic answer is more complex than that.

Despite these violent attributes, according to a National Geographic article, Vikings also embody a slew of positive values: they were tightly-knit groups of individuals with a strong set of shared beliefs and values, they cared for one another, they aboded by a set of concrete “laws” –– although admittedly perverse by modern standards.

Because of this mixed history, the positive and negative sides of the Viking needs to be acknowledged and readily discussed but do not necessarily merit the re-branding of our school.

What does need to be changed, though, is how we depict the Viking. The white, blond, male figure that reinforces the white, male paradigm of athletics and academia, is the surface-level impression others get of Paly. As explained in our article “Saying Bye to Bias,” sports have been a historically male-dominated sphere. Sports were a way for men to show their “aggression” and “fierceness.” Only with the creation of Title IX in 1972 were women given “equal” opportunities in athletics. And, despite the strides made, we still have a long way to go, both for men who want to explore more “female-dominated” sports, and for women searching for their place in athletics – a world still overly inhabited by men. And, having a white, male viking as our mascot reinforces the notion that sports are for only one group.

Although the viking mascot aptly characterizes an aggression and ferocity Paly wants to bring to athletics, why don’t we diversify its image? Why can’t we have a female Viking?

Or a Viking that isn’t white? While critics might point out that our Viking mascot is white and a man because (duh, Elizabeth) Vikings were white. And Male. Well, although many were, some actually were not.

The aforementioned National Geographic article notes that Vikings were mixed individuals due to their far globe-fairing adventures, with new DNA evidence showing that they may come from a diverse array of places, from Europe to Asia. The new DNA evidence also shows scientists and anthropologists the increasing likelihood of female Viking warriors, according to History.com. David Zori, an assistant professor in history and archaeology at the University of Baylor notes that “we are starting to think of the Vikings as less like a group of barrel-chested, blond-haired, bearded men that all looked the same.”

Despite the empirical evidence supporting a diverse Viking, we can actually leapfrog any debate about that discussion through an easier solution: de-personification. In fact, Paly has already moved toward this, with our use of a ship or a Viking helmet instead of an actual person.

By removing the person from our mascot and using an object instead, we keep what makes the Viking mascot so iconic: its simplicity and its memorability. What would Paly be without out “one ship” motto that sticks in people’s minds? What would we be without the “sko vikes” chant that echoes in our ears?

So, instead of viewing the Vikings through a presentist lens and doing away with it completely, we should accept their mixed history. However, if we want to keep a person-figure as our mascot, we should adjust its image by moving towards a more diverse (and accurate!) depiction of the Viking, or we should de-personify it completely. Either proposition keeps what makes the Viking so iconic but alters it to better represent what Paly wants to be: a diverse, dedicated, fiercely devoted group of students.