Gender equality discussed in response to campus protest
In reponse to the commentary piece "New meaning to term 'cheap date'" in the Oct. 29 issue of The Wire
Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: Commentary
Because Women's Studies was specifically targeted in Ian Sloane's opinion piece, members of the Women's Studies Advisory Committee have written the following response.
We are profoundly troubled by the misogyny expressed in the article, not least in the author's stereotyping of women, feminism, and Women's Studies. Such expressions of misogyny are part of a larger culture in which violence against women remains a problem despite decades of activism and education. All of us live in a society in which gender inequality is still a reality. Women earn 73 cents for each dollar men earn; one in four college women is a victim of rape or attempted rape; women hold only 16% of seats in the U.S. Congress. Women in this society are also inundated with daily messages that they are inferior to men. The cumulative effect of these messages can diminish women's sense of self and send the message that the denigration of women is socially acceptable.
To comprehend the effect of the article, we must understand it in this context. The article sends women the message that they are inferior and explicitly sanctions behavior that sends women such messages. When the author claims that all women are prostitutes, he uses one of a variety of epithets that are commonly deployed against women to remind them of their inferiority. Not only does such use fail to take seriously the plight of sex workers, the claim that all women are prostitutes suggests that women are inferior just because they are women. The article expresses a fear of women's sexuality that has long been part of misogynist cultures. It is heterosexist in its assumption that "all women" are interested in or involved in relationships with men. And in suggesting that women must choose between love and personal integrity, that women who want to be in relationships with men must stop demanding gender equality, the author falls into an old pattern of blaming women for everything that is wrong with modern heterosexual relationships.
We are profoundly troubled by the misogyny expressed in the article, not least in the author's stereotyping of women, feminism, and Women's Studies. Such expressions of misogyny are part of a larger culture in which violence against women remains a problem despite decades of activism and education. All of us live in a society in which gender inequality is still a reality. Women earn 73 cents for each dollar men earn; one in four college women is a victim of rape or attempted rape; women hold only 16% of seats in the U.S. Congress. Women in this society are also inundated with daily messages that they are inferior to men. The cumulative effect of these messages can diminish women's sense of self and send the message that the denigration of women is socially acceptable.
To comprehend the effect of the article, we must understand it in this context. The article sends women the message that they are inferior and explicitly sanctions behavior that sends women such messages. When the author claims that all women are prostitutes, he uses one of a variety of epithets that are commonly deployed against women to remind them of their inferiority. Not only does such use fail to take seriously the plight of sex workers, the claim that all women are prostitutes suggests that women are inferior just because they are women. The article expresses a fear of women's sexuality that has long been part of misogynist cultures. It is heterosexist in its assumption that "all women" are interested in or involved in relationships with men. And in suggesting that women must choose between love and personal integrity, that women who want to be in relationships with men must stop demanding gender equality, the author falls into an old pattern of blaming women for everything that is wrong with modern heterosexual relationships.
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