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salienneI go to a fairly prestigious and relatively liberal university in the States. As such, I expect certain things from my university: diversity; attempts at tolerance, acceptance, and equality; a non-hostile environment. As a woman and as member of our sexual assault hotline, I certainly expect my university to respect women, and I expect it to do its best to prevent the objectification and disparaging of women. I expect it not to explicitly further misogyny and the rape culture.
I expect it to protect women. To protect me and those I care about.
What I do not expect is for a student group to invite Tucker Max, Mr. 'women are like toys and trash, there for my entertainment,' to speak. I do not expect my tuition to go towards paying this man thousands of dollars to tell jokes about all the women he's fucked and all the women he's threatened with violence.
Naturally, there was a petition. Faculty members wrote letters. The Deans and the President were contacted, the student organization responsible heard speeches and read these letters and the petition. They voted.
Guess who's still coming this Wednesday?
Now I'm in England, so I have managed to remain relatively disconnected from all of this. I've been able to ignore it.
Until today when I really looked at Mr. Max's writing, when I really listened to what's going on back at my university, what my friends are going through.
For all the good it will probably do (i.e. none), I have just sent this letter to just about every person I can think of to contact:
Dear To Whom It May Concern,
Hello, my name is *name* and I’m a junior at *school*. I am writing to voice my strong objection to the paid appearance of Tucker Max at *school* this Wednesday November 11th. As a woman, I am hurt, disgusted, and angry that the *student group* and *school* are sponsoring this event.
I have heard four major arguments in favor of his appearance: that this is a popular event, that Mr. Max has a right to free speech, that Mr. Max is merely a comedian, and that the HOP does not support his views. I will address each of these arguments in turn.
Although this is no doubt a popular event, just because something is popular does not make it right, inoffensive, or harmless. For instance, take “blackface”—the practice of a white individual putting on makeup in order to appear black. Although incredibly popular up through the 1950’s, this practice is now widely regarded as racist and harmful because of the way it reinforces negative stereotypes of black individuals. Its popularity only amplified, rather than diminished, its demeaning effects.
Naturally, the individuals putting on or defending blackface had and have the right to do so. After all, every person in the United States has the right to free speech—from a KKK member to Tucker Max. However, although Tucker Max has every right to express views about “fat girls”, “sluts”, how much he wants to “shoot… bitches”, and about how the female sex is “hardwired for whoredom,” this does not mean that Hopkins must give him a public and prestigious platform to air these views.
When Glenn Beck called President Obama a racist, he had every right to do so, just as dozens of his sponsors had every right to pull their commercials from his program. Similarly, there is nothing forcing *School* to pay Mr. Max thousands of dollars—coming out of my tuition, the tuition of hundreds of female students, and the donations of various female alumni—to voice misogynistic views on its property to its students.
A natural response to this argument would be that Tucker Max is merely a comedian, that airing these views in the guise of comedy somehow makes them harmless or all right. However, because of its seemingly innocuous nature, comedy can perpetuate negative views by ‘sneaking them under the radar’. While no one will start hating women because of woman-hating jokes, enough such jokes reinforce negative views already existing within society.
To joke about rape and its precursors is to reinforce one of our culture’s most invasive and harmful discourses: that rape should not be taken seriously. That women should not be taken seriously.
To objectify women as sexual conquests is to perpetuate a culture of rape in which women are notches on a bedpost. A culture in which, according to National Institute of Justice & Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 1 in every 6 women in America has been the victim of rape or attempted rape. *School* itself had at least 5 reported sexual assaults last Fall semester.
Will Mr. Max’s work or appearance alone bring about a rape? Almost certainly not. But the publicity given to his work only serves to reaffirm that women are sexual objects, second-class citizens, and not worth respecting. With the rate of gender violence so high, I cannot stress enough that this validation of Tucker Max’s views is harmful.
Although the *student group* claims not to support these views and will speak a disclaimer, these few sentences cannot and will not override the message sent by having such a prestigious university invite such a man to speak to its students.
Tucker Max’s appearance at *school* sends out the message that it is all right to consider women nothing more than disposable sexual objects— “Cum dumpsters”, Mr. Max calls us—as long as you make some people laugh. It provides a public and prestigious platform for a man who states that certain women “aren’t real people”.
I would like to ask you, if someone stated that black persons or disabled persons were not “real people”—or even three-fifths of a person—but laughed while doing it, would you still give that person a platform to speak?
I would hope not. And, similarly, I hope you reconsider this Wednesday’s plans and use what influence you have to change them.
Thank you very much for your time.
Sincerely,
*My name*
Will it do anything? Probably not.
But I am so hurt, angry, disappointed, and just all-around upset. I had to do something, and for what it's worth, I did this. It was probably all already said, but it had to be said again.
I hate the world sometimes, guys. Between this, my Gender Relations class, Maine, the Stupak Amendment, and that gang-rape where a group of at least 10 teens stood around and laughed and took pictures and watched, I just feel so stuck and helpless.
How do you change--or even live in--a world where most people refuse to believe anything is wrong, where women (and minorities, and those with less money, and so many others) are second-class citizens, where things only get worse the further you move away from your comfort zone, and where even your supposedly liberal university will claim that it's perfectly okay for a misogynist to come and laugh at the suffering of women?
I expect it to protect women. To protect me and those I care about.
What I do not expect is for a student group to invite Tucker Max, Mr. 'women are like toys and trash, there for my entertainment,' to speak. I do not expect my tuition to go towards paying this man thousands of dollars to tell jokes about all the women he's fucked and all the women he's threatened with violence.
Naturally, there was a petition. Faculty members wrote letters. The Deans and the President were contacted, the student organization responsible heard speeches and read these letters and the petition. They voted.
Guess who's still coming this Wednesday?
Now I'm in England, so I have managed to remain relatively disconnected from all of this. I've been able to ignore it.
Until today when I really looked at Mr. Max's writing, when I really listened to what's going on back at my university, what my friends are going through.
For all the good it will probably do (i.e. none), I have just sent this letter to just about every person I can think of to contact:
Dear To Whom It May Concern,
Hello, my name is *name* and I’m a junior at *school*. I am writing to voice my strong objection to the paid appearance of Tucker Max at *school* this Wednesday November 11th. As a woman, I am hurt, disgusted, and angry that the *student group* and *school* are sponsoring this event.
I have heard four major arguments in favor of his appearance: that this is a popular event, that Mr. Max has a right to free speech, that Mr. Max is merely a comedian, and that the HOP does not support his views. I will address each of these arguments in turn.
Although this is no doubt a popular event, just because something is popular does not make it right, inoffensive, or harmless. For instance, take “blackface”—the practice of a white individual putting on makeup in order to appear black. Although incredibly popular up through the 1950’s, this practice is now widely regarded as racist and harmful because of the way it reinforces negative stereotypes of black individuals. Its popularity only amplified, rather than diminished, its demeaning effects.
Naturally, the individuals putting on or defending blackface had and have the right to do so. After all, every person in the United States has the right to free speech—from a KKK member to Tucker Max. However, although Tucker Max has every right to express views about “fat girls”, “sluts”, how much he wants to “shoot… bitches”, and about how the female sex is “hardwired for whoredom,” this does not mean that Hopkins must give him a public and prestigious platform to air these views.
When Glenn Beck called President Obama a racist, he had every right to do so, just as dozens of his sponsors had every right to pull their commercials from his program. Similarly, there is nothing forcing *School* to pay Mr. Max thousands of dollars—coming out of my tuition, the tuition of hundreds of female students, and the donations of various female alumni—to voice misogynistic views on its property to its students.
A natural response to this argument would be that Tucker Max is merely a comedian, that airing these views in the guise of comedy somehow makes them harmless or all right. However, because of its seemingly innocuous nature, comedy can perpetuate negative views by ‘sneaking them under the radar’. While no one will start hating women because of woman-hating jokes, enough such jokes reinforce negative views already existing within society.
To joke about rape and its precursors is to reinforce one of our culture’s most invasive and harmful discourses: that rape should not be taken seriously. That women should not be taken seriously.
To objectify women as sexual conquests is to perpetuate a culture of rape in which women are notches on a bedpost. A culture in which, according to National Institute of Justice & Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 1 in every 6 women in America has been the victim of rape or attempted rape. *School* itself had at least 5 reported sexual assaults last Fall semester.
Will Mr. Max’s work or appearance alone bring about a rape? Almost certainly not. But the publicity given to his work only serves to reaffirm that women are sexual objects, second-class citizens, and not worth respecting. With the rate of gender violence so high, I cannot stress enough that this validation of Tucker Max’s views is harmful.
Although the *student group* claims not to support these views and will speak a disclaimer, these few sentences cannot and will not override the message sent by having such a prestigious university invite such a man to speak to its students.
Tucker Max’s appearance at *school* sends out the message that it is all right to consider women nothing more than disposable sexual objects— “Cum dumpsters”, Mr. Max calls us—as long as you make some people laugh. It provides a public and prestigious platform for a man who states that certain women “aren’t real people”.
I would like to ask you, if someone stated that black persons or disabled persons were not “real people”—or even three-fifths of a person—but laughed while doing it, would you still give that person a platform to speak?
I would hope not. And, similarly, I hope you reconsider this Wednesday’s plans and use what influence you have to change them.
Thank you very much for your time.
Sincerely,
*My name*
Will it do anything? Probably not.
But I am so hurt, angry, disappointed, and just all-around upset. I had to do something, and for what it's worth, I did this. It was probably all already said, but it had to be said again.
I hate the world sometimes, guys. Between this, my Gender Relations class, Maine, the Stupak Amendment, and that gang-rape where a group of at least 10 teens stood around and laughed and took pictures and watched, I just feel so stuck and helpless.
How do you change--or even live in--a world where most people refuse to believe anything is wrong, where women (and minorities, and those with less money, and so many others) are second-class citizens, where things only get worse the further you move away from your comfort zone, and where even your supposedly liberal university will claim that it's perfectly okay for a misogynist to come and laugh at the suffering of women?
