• Welcome to New Hampshire Underground.
 

News:

Please log in on the special "login" page, not on any of these normal pages. Thank you, The Procrastinating Management

"Let them march all they want, as long as they pay their taxes."  --Alexander Haig

Main Menu

Pro-man rally?

Started by Kat Kanning, April 19, 2005, 06:04 AM NHFT

Previous topic - Next topic

Kat Kanning

Ladies, how about a pro-man rally at UNH?  I think it's just awful that tax money goes toward teaching young women to hate men.  We could hand out this article:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/sennholz4.html

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Angry debate hits the fan
Magazine flap latest UNH row for detractors, feminist group
   
CHELSEA CONABOY
Concord Monitor


DURHAM ? With scissors hanging from their necks and balloons labeled ?patriarchy? in their hands, a group of University of New Hampshire students gathered in the student union building to protest the oppression of women. They shared stories of sexual violence and performed skits. They sang songs and read poems that alluded to castration, calling on women to ?sharpen your knives.?

The Patriarchy Slam was hosted by a group called the Feminist Action League. To some, it was empowering. To others, it was hateful. The event was the latest in a recent string of provocative political actions sponsored by the FAL. In the fall, the group interrupted the college president?s state-of-the-university address, demanding more be done to combat sexual assault. Most recently, members have protested against a student magazine for publishing a sexually explicit comment about a prominent FAL member.

Since it first caused a stir on campus last spring, the FAL?s methods have been as hotly debated as its message. Some say the group has mobilized the campus into constructive dialogue about sexism and violence against women. Others say it has alienated would-be male allies and harmed the atmosphere on campus.

Journalism professor Andy Merton says the climate has not been so sour since 1988, when the school?s Sexual Harassment and Rape Prevention Program was first established as a full-time organization. That year, UNH drew national attention after a gang rape in a student dormitory. Merton, chairman of the SHARPP board of advisors, said the turbulence that existed then resulted in a gradual evolution of thought. However, he said, he does not see the FAL and the debate it has created as constructive. ?The spirit of it has not been generous,? he said. But sophomore Nicole Whalen, an FAL member, said people would not be paying as much attention if the group took a tamer approach.

The FAL has started dialogue and ?that is our huge goal,? she said. ?I think things are just starting to get rolling right now.?

A ?living commitment?

Unlike in 1988, the campus?s renewed attention to sexual violence has come without any highly publicized sexual assaults.

Between July 1, 2004, and the end of February, 2005, 22 people reported being raped on the Durham campus, according to SHARPP. Fifteen of those cases occurred within that reporting period. SHARPP says those numbers have stayed fairly steady in recent months.

Instead, the major catalyst for debate has been a series of columns published in the student newspaper, The New Hampshire, by student Whitney Williams.

Williams, a senior majoring in women?s studies and English, said she became interested in feminism after supporting multiple friends who had been assaulted by men. After taking a class called Philosophy in Feminism in her sophomore year she made a ?living commitment? to feminism, she said. In her columns, Williams calls for the university administration to do more to stop sexual violence on campus. In one, she writes: ?By existing as men, men directly aid in the oppression of women.?

Williams, whose mother lives in Greenfield, also criticizes UNH fraternities for assisting in the Take Back the Night event, a yearly march and speak-out to celebrate survivors of sexual violence, but treating every other night as ?open hunting season.? Williams said the FAL, which has about seven core members, was not compelled to organize by any single event, but by the ?daily culture of oppression? and by their common thoughts on how to combat it. The New Hampshire recently published a letter to the editor calling members of the FAL ?spoiled children who have attached themselves to a cause.? Others have thanked the FAL for its courage.

Hard to speak up

Senior Jess Fish said the buzz created by the FAL and the attendant backlash has made it difficult for students who consider themselves feminists but not radical to speak up.

?When you say you are a feminist, they automatically assume, ?Okay, you hate all men and think men should be castrated,? when really no one thinks that,? said Fish, president of a separate group called Students Advocating for Gender Equality.

But when a student publication, Main Street Magazine, published an article about a sex survey last month, it gave feminists a reason to unite, she said. The article included a survey response from a man who named Williams as the celebrity he would most like to sleep with.

Williams said she took the comment as a threat to her safety and decided not to continue her classes this year.

Fish?s organization and others held a rally on April 5 during which professors and students spoke out against Main Street and the campus media in general.

Meanwhile, in letters to the newspaper, other students have protested the Patriarchy Slam. Senior David Huffman said he was discriminated against when he was kicked out of the event because he works for a conservative newspaper distributed on campus. There were other journalists and other men at the event, but Huffman was the only one asked to leave, he said. Huffman said he believes the FAL event was the equivalent to sexual harassment and the university would not have allowed it if the genders were reversed.

?The intent was to create a hostile environment,? he said. ?Their intent was to intimidate men to empower women, and the First Amendment does not protect incitements to violence.?

Ann Lawing, the university?s vice president of student affairs, said the administration has investigated the content of the Patriarchy Slam and Main Street Magazine and neither posed an immediate and direct threat of physical harm. Therefore, both are protected by law. The school is also looking into Huffman?s removal from the event.

Merton said the Main Street article showed poor taste but did not violate legal standards. As for Williams?s reaction, he said she needs to accept that if she is going to publicize unpopular opinions, people will react angrily.

Merton knows about that first hand. He has dedicated much of his career to writing about gender equality, including a personal essay called ?The Evolution of a Male Feminist Journalist.? He also wrote a book criticizing the pro-life movement.

Merton said he thinks the basic principle upon which the FAL operates is alienating. Treating all men as potential rapists is like treating all women as potential murderers, he said. It runs parallel to the fundamentalist Muslim practice of excluding women from participating in society and has the effect of shunning allies, he said.

Jane Stapleton, who teaches women?s and family studies and works for the UNH police department administering a grant to reduce men?s violence against women, said she thinks the FAL?s work has brought a new level awareness to an old and ongoing issue.

Stapleton was SHARPP staff member from 1990 to 1994. She said the hostility that has been shown toward the FAL has been a part of the climate on campus since she arrived there in 1986.

Although progress has been made, ?there are clearly pockets on campus or populations on campus which, in fact, are discriminatory toward women or are hostile toward women,? she said.

Williams has directed much of her criticism toward fraternities. Steve Pappajohn, director of Greek Affairs, said he regrets the fact that he and other Greek leaders are not more welcomed in the FAL?s efforts. He thinks the FAL has made Greeks more aware of its concerns, although he couldn?t point to specifics effects.

?I think they do deserve a little bit of credit for raising the awareness, even though we don?t agree with how they do it,? he said. ?It gives us more things to focus on.?

Changing attitudes

Charlie Knuth, the student body vice president, said Williams?s columns made people ?stamp their feet in the ground and get ready to push and meet with equal force,? Knuth said. ?But I?ve also seen a lot of those people change this year.?

Fish said the FAL has changed has changed her own thinking, too. She disliked the group?s protest of last year?s Take Back the Night event but now thinks feminists will accomplish more if they put their differences aside. The Main Street article, she said, made that clear.

?It really has united us and hopefully will make us a force to be reckoned with because we are no longer divided,? she said.

Last week, about 20 students from numerous organizations came together to discuss forming a women?s union on campus. And earlier this year, a committee was formed to update a 2002 campus study on women?s experiences with sexual violence.

Still, Fish said the general student body still is distrustful and fearful of the feminist movement on campus.

?Students aren?t engaging with feminism on an intellectual level,? she said. ?I think students are engaging with feminism on a that-means-women-hate-men level.?

Yet Cat Clarke, the student body president, said this is the first time she has seen a campus issue discussed for so long by so many people. ?The awareness that people have on this issue is 10 times greater than it was nine months ago,? Clarke said.


Pat K

Just remember we ain't wrong, we ain't sorry, and its gona happen again!!! ;D

Kat Kanning

What...have you been leaving the toilet seat up??   :o

Lloyd Danforth

#3
This, could, just be a reflection of the quality of men that these young women have been exposed too. Perhaps you should, simply, invite them to the Porcfest, to enlarge their world, concerning men.?

Don't forget to tell them about the 'no bra' rule!

museition

#4
You know Lloyd, although you may be kidding, it's just those kind of statements that offend some women.? I'm all for free speech & couldn't care less what kind of comments you make about my underwear, but please understand that many of these types of jokes have been made by the same so called "quality of men."


Pat K

Quote from: museition on April 19, 2005, 04:04 PM NHFT
You know Lloyd, although you may be kidding, it's just those kind of statements that offend some women.? I'm all for free speech & couldn't care less what kind of comments you make about my underwear, but please understand that many of these types of jokes have been made by the same so called "quality of men."

Are you kidding me?

Pat K

Quote from: katdillon on April 19, 2005, 06:43 AM NHFT
What...have you been leaving the toilet seat up??? ?:o


LOL, Yes but gravity will help it down for whoever needs it so.

Lloyd Danforth

#7
Quote from: museition on April 19, 2005, 04:04 PM NHFT
You know Lloyd, although you may be kidding, it's just those kind of statements that offend some women.? I'm all for free speech & couldn't care less what kind of comments you make about my underwear, but please understand that many of these types of jokes have been made by the same so called "quality of men."

I wasn't kidding. I mean, I know there is no, actual rule, (Varrin?), but, I don't think women should be 'strapped in' due to, what amounts, a fairly recent, change in the dressing habits of American women.

Lloyd Danforth

#8
Another thing. Those anti-male 'feminists' will be the first ones to go about, unencumbered by a bra, and, call me a pig for noticing!

I was a feminist before they were born.

Leave me alone.? I'm old. All I got left is, please excuse this, Tittilation, and, a few memories.

I've never visited Liberty Ladies before, but, saw this topic and my friend Pat, and, wanted to play.

Kat Kanning

Quote from: Lloyd Danforth on April 19, 2005, 05:11 PM NHFT
I wasn't kidding. I mean, I know there is no, actual rule, (Varrin?), but, I don't think women should be 'strapped in' due to, what amounts, a fairly recent, change in the dressing habits of American women.

Is Varrin some sort of expert of bra rules??

Pat K

#10
Well Varrin is the Bra Tsar right? ;D

Lloyd Danforth

Quote from: katdillon on April 19, 2005, 05:53 PM NHFT
Quote from: Lloyd Danforth on April 19, 2005, 05:11 PM NHFT
I wasn't kidding. I mean, I know there is no, actual rule, (Varrin?), but, I don't think women should be 'strapped in' due to, what amounts, a fairly recent, change in the dressing habits of American women.

Is Varrin some sort of expert of bra rules??

No, He's Porcfest Tsar!

LiveFreeOrDie

Quote from: Lloyd Danforth on April 19, 2005, 05:11 PM NHFTI don't think women should be 'strapped in' due to, what amounts, a fairly recent, change in the dressing habits of American women.

Which would equate to the "fairly recent" change in the dressing habits of men eschewing high heels, makeup and wigs.  Wanna go first?

Kat Kanning

LOL!  How about tights and codpieces?

Pat K

Quote from: LiveFreeOrDie on April 20, 2005, 03:39 PM NHFT
Quote from: Lloyd Danforth on April 19, 2005, 05:11 PM NHFTI don't think women should be 'strapped in' due to, what amounts, a fairly recent, change in the dressing habits of American women.

Which would equate to the "fairly recent" change in the dressing habits of men eschewing high heels, makeup and wigs.? Wanna go first?


Kinda sounds like the 70's. ;D