Sunday, March 23, 2008

Rape STILL Isn't Funny

Last December, a disturbing column appeared in the publication produced by engineering students at the University of Ottawa. The "advice" column included the following:

When asked about dealing with a messy roommate, the columnist advised the inquirer to “reach back like a pimp and smack that hoe [sic].” Another column suggested that ESS President André Sponder “is a cheap drunk with Rum and Coke,” and included a rundown of her weekly office hours.
The editor's response:

"I found that people took things out of context,” said Brunet. “I was aware that [the article] was a little bit pushing it, but it was our first time writing a paper. I had no guidelines to follow; I didn’t know what the line was [and] if we were crossing it or not.”
One might hold out hope that men as human beings will someday have guidelines of personal integrity telling them not to publish such things.

Said the coordinator of the Women's Resource Center:
“You kind of get a sinking feeling in your stomach,” she said. “We’re coming up on Dec. 6—this is the anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre—which makes [the comments] especially inappropriate.”
You remember the massacre don't you?

Gamil's father had contempt for women and believed that they were only intended to serve men....

On December 6, 1989, Lépine walked into the École Polytechnique de Montréal. There, he entered a second-floor classroom where he separated the men and women and then ordered the approximately fifty men to leave. Claiming that he was fighting feminism, he shot the nine women who remained, killing six and injuring the rest. After this, Lépine moved to other areas of the building, including the cafeteria, corridors and another classroom. A total of fourteen women (twelve engineering students, one nursing student, and one university employee) were killed, and four men and ten women injured before Lépine turned the gun on himself.

A three-page letter (see below) was found in the pocket of his jacket....In his suicide letter, Lépine claimed political motives, blaming feminists for ruining his life. He considered himself rational and expressed admiration for Denis Lortie, who had mounted an attack on the Quebec National Assembly in 1984 for political reasons, killing three Quebec government employees. The letter also contained a list of nineteen Quebec women whom Lépine apparently wished to kill because of their feminism. more
The incident led to Canada's declaring December 6 each year a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

Okay, so back in December, young mister editor claimed he hadn't known what the ground rules were (as far as publishing misogynist bullshit at an engineering school). Lesson learned? Let's see, a summary of what was published next:

After counselling men on the biological irrelevance of the female orgasm, the authors offer “tricks that will get her to think twice about finishing faster than a pedophile at a preschool.” They encourage, “jerking off on her after she’s finished: if she doesn’t get the message after the first or second time, she’ll sure get the message when you start aiming for the eyes.” Finally, they recommend anal sex in language that evokes rape. They say: “Don’t stop: Hey, if she’s screaming and moaning in pleasure, just keep thrusting harder and don’t let her get away…remember, you two aren’t finished until you say you are.”
Asked to comment, the vice-president of social affairs for the Engineering Student Society said:

“For myself, personally, I think some of the content in the paper is meant to be humorous,” he said. He added that engineers “have taken a lot of flak for being engineers,” and are often the subject of jokes about engineers rarely touching women or getting laid.

“I believe that when we take this sort of thing in stride and that sexual harassment, if we dish out a little bit of our own, who’s to say who’s more right?”
He, a dood, has taken some razzing for being an engineering type, so what's a little harassment of women? If you can't get laid, might as well hate women, cuz what else are they good for??? If you can't get laid and the other boys say you don't measure up, degrade women so they will recognize you as one of the men - because nothing says male bonding quite like woman hating. And rape's funny, right? And woman-hating, that's not dangerous to women engineering students, right, well, except for that one time in Montreal and all.

The school has shut down the paper for now.

via "The F-Word"

This reminds me of the Auto Admit case in which male law students targeted female students with such awful online commentary that the women, Yale law school grads, became unemployable.

This is what being a woman in law school or engineering school is like - in 2008. But we're all so post-feminist now.

2 comments:

droudy said...

Disgusting. What gives them the right?

They were just having fun, but didn't bother while having such fun and protecting their own reputations to consider the reputations of their targets.

Pigs.

NOLA radfem said...

Yeah, it's scary to think of future engineers and future lawyers acting like this, although I guess it just goes to show that it's everywhere.