December
THE LANCE
Opinion
Xanthippe
with Mary Griggs
During a recent SAGE 321 plennary, one of the
speakers accused the SAGE program of being ‘clas-
sist, racist, and sexist’. This was met with laughter
and applause. Armed with numerous statistics about
the status of women, Jesse Johnakin, Mel Bringle,
Lisa' Dubs, and Cheryl Sparks were very convincing,
in supporting their accusation.
Tioward the end of the discussion period, one
stucjent spoke about some feminists that he had met
whQ profess to be man-haters. The curse of being a
ma^-hater has been leveled against those who are
active in working against the destructive patriarchal
systems. But many who were called anti-man are not
man haters. They are anti-exploitation, anti-degrada
tion, and anti-oppression. The one way to keep
women from becoming anti-male is for men to stop
exploiting, degrading, and oppressing women.
A more active occurence on this campus is woman-
hating. One evening last week, during dinner, a
member of the men’s soccer team shouted that “[a
woman’s name] has little tits!” That is not funny, it is
misogyny. All of those who laughed at her humilation
were either cowards or collaborators in that hateful
act.
A member of the baseball team sexually harasses
women by pinching them on the buttock as they walk
by him at meals. The act of reducing women or, for
that matter, anyone to the status of an object is wrong
and destructive. This is why there is a section in The
Saltire on the policy and procedure for dealing with
sexual harassment.
Respect women as human beings or respect them as
adversaries in front of the Honor Court.
On Saturday the 5th of November a vile exhibition
took place in Mecklenberg Hall. Two young women
signed up to be in a wet T-shirt competition. For the
event they were handcuffed to the bed frame and stu
dents were allowed to toss their drinks onto the girls.
In defense of the affair some of the organizers claimed
that since the women ‘volunteered’, that absolved the
participants of blame. Just because they agreed to the
contest does not make the degradation they suffered
all right. The Nazi’s claimed that the Jews volun
teered to go to the concentration camps. I doubt
whether anyone could condone their abuse of human
rights. In the same vein, the behavior of those stu
dents on Saturday can not and must not be forgiven as
simple college excesses.
Besides being emotionally and mentally a usive,
woman-hating can also take the form of physica
abuse. In this country a woman is battered every
seconds. In 50 percent of relationships the
will be battered. These statistics were furnished by
the Southeastern Family Violence Center which
supplies shelter, support, councelling, an a
crisis line for victims of domestic violence.page 4
Poge
Admissions "Blacklists"
Writers Forum?
To the Editor,
It has come to my attention that the Writer’s Forum
Program of St. Andrew’s has been “blacklisted” by
members of the Admissions Office of our fair school.
On November 10, 1988, we held a Forum spotlighting
readers from across the world who read works by
writers of their native land. This forum was an excel
lent opportunity for snjdents and prospectives to get a
taste of the wide variety of culture that an education at
this school could provide. However, I was told that the
admissions office had discouraged prospective stu
dents who were visiting the campus at the time from
attending Thursday night’s reading. As director of the
Writer’s Forum this year, I would like to extend my
utter and complete disgust to the closed minded cog in
the machine who does not feel that the forums are ap
propriate examples of the atmosphere of this commu
nity of learning and growth and therefore, robbed the
prospectives of a chance to hear some excellent world
literature.
Jon Piu-gas
Director of Writer's Forum
Tired of Unscheduled
Happenings
To the Editor,
I feel discriminated against. Not because I am a
woman, not because I am short, but because I have
classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In the past
several weeks, Student Life and various organizations
have planned interesting and fun activities on Wed.
This is uncool. I would have loved to participate in
Jeopardy, but I could not even see it due to a test the
following morning. In addition to these scheduled
events, there are often unscheduled “happenings” on
Monday and Wed. nights. These “happenings” often
involve loud noise, yelling and screaming, and late
partying. I have nothing against partying, but when I
have to get up for an 8 o' clock class in the morning, I
get really po’d. I wish both organizations and students
would have a little more respect for those of us who
have classes 5 days a week instead of 3. The days of
no classes on Thursdays are over.
Tired of it!
(Name withheld upon request)