Posted on 03/31/2005 1:35:18 PM PST by freespirited
DURHAM — The University of New Hampshire is investigating a possible case of discrimination in which a male student says he was asked to leave a public feminist poetry event where women wore scissors on their necks and talked of castrating rapists.
But one of the student organizers of the event says the man was asked to leave because he was a journalist for a student paper — "not because he is a man" — and that some women wanted to be anonymous when sharing personal stories that included experiences with rape.
UNH senior David Huffman, 22, of Hollis, said this week he was working as a reporter for a small conservative student paper called Common Sense when he tried to cover the Patriarchy Slam held in the basement of UNH's Memorial Union Building the evening of March 10.
Organized by the Feminist Action League, a radical feminist group that includes students and recent graduates and is not recognized by UNH, the event featured songs about castrating rapists, as well as women wearing scissors on their necks and using the scissors to pop balloons that spelled out "The Patriarchy," according to FAL member and UNH senior Nicole Hentz.
"We made it very clear we didn't want to castrate all men," Hentz said. "The penis is the symbol of power and is the weapon used to rape women and its sort of the symbolic way of saying we were going to take away that power men have over us."
FAL has been active on campus for about two years and has urged UNH not to cut a class on violence against women. One of its members, Whitney Williams, writes a column for the student newspaper, The New Hampshire, which often focuses on feminist issues.
Hentz described FAL as a radical feminist organization interested in dismantling the patriarchy in all its forms.
The group has called for the dissolution of the fraternity system and supports Take Back the Night, an anti-rape event. Williams allegedly received a death threat last year related to her writings that was investigated by police. Williams could not be reached for this article.
Huffman said he spoke with a member of FAL before the start of the event and that he stayed for about half the program before he was asked to leave by another man in attendance.
"I was told my presence as a man would be intimidating to the other women there," Huffman said in a telephone interview. "They wanted to create a space free of men."
Hentz said Huffman was not asked to leave because of his gender but because he was taking notes as a journalist. She said FAL members realized they were wrong in doing so.
"There were issues dealing with sexual assault and sexual harassment and things of that nature," Hentz said. "We just though it was best that he leave after that point and we were incorrect in that and we actually didn't realize that and we got a talking to from the MUB, the leaders, about policy."
MUB Director MaryAnne Lustgraf said one of the main issues surrounding the event was that FAL hosted the Patriarchy Slam, but the MUB room was reserved by recognized student group, The Peace And Justice League.
"We're looking into it only from MUB policy standpoints," Lustgraf said. "Who reserved the room and advertising for the event. One group was listed as the sponsor and that's not who reserved the space."
Fliers advertising the event were posted around campus in the day or two before the slam. They included images of jubilant and laughing women with slogans that read "Jane got pretty excited when we told her she could slam the patriarchy next Thursday," and "The more they kept laughing, the more the men feared that something had gone terribly wrong."
Anne Lawing, UNH vice president of student affairs, said yesterday she first heard of the incident on March 11, when Huffman brought his concerns to administrators. She echoed Lustgraf's comments when she said the main concern administrators had was possible improper use of MUB space.
Both Lawing and Lustgraf said they met with members of the Peace and Justice League and warned them about policies related to reserving MUB space. Lawing said that she is still looking into other issues, including freedom of speech and possibly offensive material.
"If a group is going to hold an event like this and put up posters that imply the public is welcome, they have to allow access," Lawing said. "They have to allow the public to enter, no matter who it is."
When asked if UNH is investigating the issue as possible discrimination, Lawing said she is first looking at the violation of MUB policy on use of public space and that the issue was presented to administrators as a question of discrimination.
"We're not finished dealing with the whole issue," she said. "Our harassment policies are pretty clear. There's the issue of whether this person was turned away because of his gender or because he was a reporter."
Lawing said she hopes to conclude her investigation by Monday.
When asked if the event would be investigated as a case of discrimination if it was hosted by a fraternity and included men referencing mutilation of female parts, Lawing said she and other UNH administrators considered that possibility.
"Frankly, when we found out about this, we were asking, 'What if it was a fraternity?' " she said. "If a fraternity did that, we have so much data that shows that fraternities have been violent with women in the past and the instances of women being violent to men happen so infrequently."
After some consideration and clarification, Lawing said, "I don't think that what they did is OK, but we're talking about their rights and the First Amendment and not about what I think is OK. Violence isn't OK, frankly. Men are victims, too."
In contrast, UNH swiftly kicked sophomore Timothy Garneau out of his dorm last semester after he posted fliers mocking freshmen women who gain weight. Garneau spent several weeks sleeping in his car and at friends' places before UNH relented under the pressure of a national free speech group and let him move back in to a dorm.
Lawing said one reason UNH administrators have taken more than a week to complete looking into the issue is that students were gone from campus last week for spring break.
Hentz said event organizers did not mean to suggest that they advocated castrating all men and that the slam was meant to allow an open forum for a range of emotions.
Awwww. These girls are all heart.
Way serious penis envy. Way serious.
I'm so relieved.
Um...glad we cleared that up.
They'll get over it by becoming lawyers or sales chicks for pharmaceutical companies or execs and buy a huge SUV that they won't have a clue how to drive, but will compensate for having no package.
Anyone want to contribute to a fund to send the Chippendales to their next meeting?
A bunch of radical feminists being invaded by gay beefcake. The mind boggles.
Unless the 'slam' part involves an immediate slamming of my skull with a large hammer. That would be OK, as my suffering would end before the feminist poetry part kicked in.
Thank god I was born with the external plumbing option.
It makes you appreciate the courage of this young fellow.
Karl Rove has his people everywhere. Just be glad this evil mastermind is using his powers for our side.
Yin - Yang, so to speak. I always heard women were more powerful because they had half the money and all girl parts.
As much as I hate these radicals, they can argue back that this 'other man' was not asked to leave...
so much for freud being outdated by skinner.
Yup, one lefty group covering for another. PAJL should be sanctioned.
Let me see. Women reporters sued for and won the right to be present in mens' locker rooms because anything else infringed on the public "right to know" and was "gender discrimination." Yet a legitimate male reporter is denied the right to cover some cavalcade of shrews on the grounds that the attendees have a right to anonymity ... in a public forum, no less.
Without special leftist training, any ordinary human would dislocate his jaw trying to speak that duplicitously.
Yes. To a point that used to be pathological. But now legitimate. Way legitimate.
Where were these twits when Juanita Broaddick came forth with her x42perience with rape? I guess certain rapists get a pass....
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