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Ruined Snow Penis Stimulates Debate (Loony Feminist Alert!)
Harvard Crimson ^ | Monday, February 24, 2003 | HANA R. ALBERTS

Posted on 02/24/2003 12:01:43 PM PST by MikalM

Ruined Snow Penis Stimulates Debate

When a few members of the Harvard crew team decided to build a snowy representation of the male anatomy on Feb. 11, they never imagined it would be so hard to keep it up.

The 9-foot snow phallus, constructed in Tercentenary Theater, was torn down just hours after its erection.

But its impression still sparked an intense debate, from dining halls to dorm rooms, over the appropriateness of public displays of genitalia.

Even The Economist magazine weighed in on the discussion, offering the destruction of the sculpture as evidence of American prudishness on its usually staid pages.

But women’s groups on campus have led a chorus of complaints against the snow penis, arguing that such a display is demeaning to women.

“It was offensive because it was pornographic,” said Amy E. Keel ’04, who said she and her roommate “dismantled” the giant snow penis.

“As a feminist, pornography is degrading to women and creates a violent atmosphere,” she said.

Keel said that her personal experience as a rape survivor makes this statue even more uncomfortable to observe.

“Men think they have the right to force that on you,” she said. “It’s a logical extension.”

Furthermore, Keel claims that she and her roommate were verbally and physically harassed by a group of roughly 25 men when they attempted to tear down the statue with a cardboard tube at 1:30 a.m. the morning after it was built.

“A few people came out and crowded me with their bodies and one person shoved me away from the penis,” she said. “It was gendered violence, because [their comments] were said in the context of our gender and accompanied by aggressive actions toward us.”

Though Keel assumed some of her harassers were among the creators of the statue, she said she could not identify any of the men.

And crew team captain Michael J. Skey ’04 denies that he or any of the other makers of the statue had been involved in the incident. According to Spey, the group left the Yard over three hours before Keel and her roommate tried to take down the snow phallus.

“We cleared out by 10:15 p.m.,” Spey said. “We had morning practice, and if guys are out there that late I’d be pissed. That’s why we did it so early.”

But regardless of the alleged circumstances surrounding the snow penis’ downfall, a controversy over the meaning of the statue lingers.

Women’s Studies Lecturer Diane L. Rosenfeld, who teaches Women, Violence and the Law this semester, said that the implications of the snow phallus go beyond the legitimacy of the statue’s presence.

“The ice sculpture was erected in a public space, one that should be free from menacing reminders of women’s sexual vulnerability,” Rosenfeld wrote in an e-mail yesterday.

She said the snow penis follows a long line of public phallic symbols, including the Washington Monument and missiles.

“Women do not need to be reminded of the power of the symbol of the male genitalia,” Rosenfeld said. “My guess is that they are constantly reminded of it in daily messages.”

A discussion about feminist perspectives on the statue, sponsored by the Radcliffe Union of Students, will take place Tuesday night in the Adams House small dining room.

But the makers of the statue said they intended to build the snow penis as a simple joke.

Skey said he came up with the idea to allow a few members of the team to “hang out together” outside of practice.

“We built it for fun, instead of building a snowman,” he said. “We built it specifically as a junior high prank.”

Skey said he never expected such national attention—or such heated opposition.

“Once it turned around into a huge sexism debate, it was like a giant keg of gunpowder waiting for a spark,” Skey said.

In spite of Skey’s intentions, Keel said she was offended by the joke.

“I have a right to speak out against the joke,” Keel said. “I criticize the motives of putting it up, but since they did, it is within my rights to put it down. It goes both ways.”

Skey said he agreed Keel did not do anything wrong by knocking down the statue.

“If people found it obscene, they had a right to rip it down,” he said. “That’s perfectly true.”

But Skey said he thinks that at a school like Harvard, jokes can be blown out of proportion.

“Smart kids overanalyze things,” he said.

—Staff writer Hana R. Alberts can be reached at alberts@fas.harvard.edu.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: academia; castration; demonstration; feminazi; feminazis; feminist; feministas; frigidwomen; harvard; idiotarian; itsjustsex; left; massachusetts; pc; penisenvy; politicallycorrect; protest; puritanism; putsomeiceonit; sexualbutchery; university; vandalism; victimology
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To: MikalM
“As a feminist, pornography is degrading to women and creates a violent atmosphere,” she said.

Being a feminist, she also considers a bra, 'degrading to women.'

141 posted on 02/24/2003 2:40:24 PM PST by Slyfox
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To: FreeTheHostages
A man needs a femichick like a bicycle needs a fish!

Pray for GW and our Troops

142 posted on 02/24/2003 2:41:39 PM PST by bray
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To: bray
LOL!
143 posted on 02/24/2003 2:51:31 PM PST by sauropod (It's OK to drive an SUV if it helps you get babes.....)
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To: Black Agnes; rmlew; cardinal4; LiteKeeper; hoppity; Lizard_King; Sir_Ed; TLBSHOW; BigRedQuark; ...
Leftism on Campus ping!

If you would like to be added to the Leftism on Campus ping list, please
notify me via FReep-mail.

Regards...
144 posted on 02/24/2003 2:52:02 PM PST by Hobsonphile (Human nature can't be wished away by utopian dreams.)
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To: bray
"A man needs a femichick like a bicycle needs a fish!"

There is something repulsive about a woman who thinks she is as much a man as I am. What could be more pathetic than a woman who demonizes the men to whom they owe all their freedoms?

But take heart, inherent in their philosophy, is the mechanism for their demise. Feminists don’t propagate well.
145 posted on 02/24/2003 2:56:10 PM PST by Search4Truth (Feminism is penis envy taken to the level of neurosis.)
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To: robertpaulsen
You don't remember the Boulder (Colorado) Public Library display a little over a year ago?

Of course I do. I opposed that as well. So did most everyone I know. Do you remember it's fate? Surely, you're not suggesting these are displays of the art of great masters? If so, well, that just supports my mention of the degenerate nature of things, both moral and artistic.

So, where do you draw the line? What, if anything, do you consider unacceptable for public display and why?

146 posted on 02/24/2003 3:12:00 PM PST by templar
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To: FreeTheHostages
"Women do not need to be reminded of the power of the symbol of the male genitalia." Oh, get real: that's almost as bad as Search4's declaration: this idea that we women obsess on not having a penis is laughable."

Well it appears that some women do need to be reminded of the fact that it is a man's world, and that women enjoy only the freedoms that men are willing to provide them, or not. Just ask the women in Third World countries.

American women owe every freedom they enjoy to an American man. That fact enrages feminists, for they do not want to feel any indebtedness to men. It interferes with their misdirected contempt for men - a contempt that extends to all things masculine, and IMHO is the result of issues with their fathers.

Must be lonely being a Conservative Feminist.
147 posted on 02/24/2003 3:16:55 PM PST by Search4Truth (Feminism is penis envy taken to the level of neurosis.)
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To: MikalM
All that talk of erection makes me horny!
148 posted on 02/24/2003 3:20:59 PM PST by Feiny
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To: MikalM
Hmmm.... women have seen baby boys completing with that horrid whatchamacallit the moment they emerge from the womb. And women are supposed to be offended by male anatomy? Oh puhleeeaze. Whatever one's opinion on the propriety of this particular display, it cannot be underemphasized that in fact it objectifies MEN more than women. So what the heck are the feminazis whining about?? This is exactly what they've wanted for long time: revenge for all those brazen male depictions of naked female bosoms.
149 posted on 02/24/2003 3:21:47 PM PST by goldstategop
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To: AnnaZ; HangFire
Ice Penis Alert!!!!
150 posted on 02/24/2003 3:23:01 PM PST by Feiny
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To: templar
In post #53, you stated:

"I don't recall any great paintings and statues of an errect penis being displayed publicly."

I mentioned Boulder because I thought you forgot, not that I supported it. But now you say you didn't forget.

Whatever.

151 posted on 02/24/2003 3:23:36 PM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: FreeTheHostages
Um, yeah. I went to Harvard and there were a lot of women like that. They wasted a lot of time

How exhausting and humorless.

152 posted on 02/24/2003 3:26:04 PM PST by T Minus Four
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To: Gunslingr3; FLdeputy; Beauty; prana; WolfsView
Ruined Snow Penis Stimulates Debate

Possible best headline ever ping.

Really, I mean, how often do you think you will ever seee the words "ruined snow penis" in that order?

153 posted on 02/24/2003 3:34:27 PM PST by Jonathon Spectre (who's still laughing)
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To: templar
Public displays of genitalia are not appropriate. This isn't a feminist issue, it is a public morals issue.

I agree. But, after I saw this

She said the snow penis follows a long line of public phallic symbols, including the Washington Monument and missiles.

It kinda made me want to side with the guys.

154 posted on 02/24/2003 3:38:51 PM PST by It's me
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To: MikalM; wimpycat
nd BTW, I'm not a "conservative."

Well, that explains our disagreement about public morality. But, remember that wimpycat brought up Greece and Rome back in #57, not me. I just pointed out that their morals are considered decadent and are not justification for our standards in America today.

Believe me, I'm not feeling threatened by anything. I stand for what I stand for and will till the day I die. Times change but I do not. In the late 60's and 70's I was called a left winger. In the 80's I was called middle of the road in the 90's I found myself being called conservative and a right wing extremist. The country has changed. I am still the same, believe the same, but I do behave a bit better than in my youth.

155 posted on 02/24/2003 3:44:43 PM PST by templar
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To: Alouette
for a female to be shoved away from a penis, she must be really butt ugly!!!!
156 posted on 02/24/2003 3:52:14 PM PST by cajun-jack
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To: MikalM
Isn't tearing down the snow phallus an act of violence against men?
157 posted on 02/24/2003 3:52:16 PM PST by seams2me ("if they pass the reading test, it means they learned to read" GWB 1/8/03)
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To: It's me
It kinda made me want to side with the guys.

Yeah, I sorta feel that same sympathy. But, I doubt the guys did it to make an agressive or threatening statement about women and their place in the world. It seems that the femimist crazies have just seized it to express their radical anti-male agenda.

158 posted on 02/24/2003 3:52:46 PM PST by templar
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To: templar
I don't recall any great paintings and statues of an errect penis being displayed publicly. Perhaps you could point some of them out? If a man goes out and publicly displays his naked errection he will end up in jail and, probably, a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. Deliberatly displaying an errect phallus publicly is not that different. It is inappropriate and a violation of public morals (except, maybe, in countries like California). I find the Vagina Monologues equally offensive, but thay are not being performed openly in public where everyone passing by is exposed to them.

Granted. I remember, however, women where I worked gleefully presenting "penis cakes" to their co-workers (replete with 2 Hostess Twinkies as -- well, you know) on their birthdays.

I thought it was a bit over the top, but no one shrank away in fear and felt obliged to smash it. The whole thing could have been dealt with much less emotionally.

159 posted on 02/24/2003 4:08:15 PM PST by BfloGuy (The past is like a different country, they do things different there.)
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To: MikalM
Furthermore, Keel claims that she and her roommate were verbally and physically harassed by a group of roughly 25 men when they attempted to tear down the statue with a cardboard tube at 1:30 a.m. the morning after it was built.

I notice they used a cardboard tube - they must have been afraid to touch it... So afraid, that I bet these same gals eat bananas like ears of corn...

160 posted on 02/24/2003 4:14:23 PM PST by Chad Fairbanks (We've got Armadillos in our trousers. It's quite frightening really)
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