Free Speech, or Violent Overtones?
To hell with an except--this article deserves full billing!
Satirical Flier Raises Ire - PETER MARCUS; Denver Daily News
Two Colorado Springs college students will appeal disciplinary action taken against them by the school for a flier that was meant to be a satirical response to a monthly feminist flier. Chris Robinson and a second unnamed student are being required by Colorado College to hold a forum to discuss the “issues and questions which (they) raised,” according to a disciplinary letter issued by Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Mike Edmonds.
Operating under the name the Coalition Of Some Dudes, the two students distributed a flier, the “Monthly Bag,” which was meant as a satirical response to the “Monthly Rag,” a flier distributed by the Feminist and Gender Studies Interns. The February issue of the “Monthly Bag” contained a section called “chainsaw etiquette” and a statistic about the Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle, which Edmonds said was “received as a threat by members of the Colorado College community.”
Robinson told the Denver Daily News yesterday that the flier was not meant to be threatening, but instead meant to appeal to a masculine personality. The “chainsaw etiquette” section includes four jokes about chainsaw use, including, “When possible, show off your guns while sawing (expletive).” But in his disciplinary letter, Edmonds said the tone of the flier violated the school’s student code of conduct policy on violence under the “college value of Respect.”
“In this climate in which we find ourselves today, violence — or implied violence — of any kind cannot be tolerated on a college campus,” read the letter.
Robinson said he came up with the idea for the flier after seeing the “Monthly Rag” in men’s bathrooms throughout the small, private liberal arts college. “It’s invasive, it’s offensive and the reason I made the ‘Monthly Bag’ was to stick an ice pick into the heart of the politically correct culture,” said the senior political science major.
The competing “Monthly Rag” flier includes a reference to “male castration,” an announcement about a lecture on “feminist porn” by a “world-famous prostitute and porn star” and an explanation of “packing.” One of the five “packing” explanations defines the term as “creating the appearance of a phallus under clothing.” Another explanation defines “packing” as “often performed by females who identify outside of the heterosexual norm of the gender binary.” The flier also quoted the 1969 Joreen “Bitch Manifesto” as stating, “Bitches … clomp up stairs, stride when they walk and don’t worry about where they put their legs when they sit. They have loud voices and often use them. Bitches are not pretty.”
Eileen Bresnahan, an associate professor of feminist and gender studies at Colorado College, declined to comment yesterday on the issue. Colorado College President Richard F. Celeste and Edmonds both did not return repeated phone calls and e-mails yesterday by the Denver Daily News seeking comment. Two different receptionists said the administrators were on campus, but out to lunch at the time of the query. In a campus-wide e-mail, Celeste previously called the “Monthly Bag” “threatening and demeaning … categorically unacceptable in this community.” He called for the authors to come forward. Robinson and his colleague came forward an hour later.
The Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is assisting in the two students’ appeal process.
“One flier that mentions ‘male castration’ is not violence, but a flier that makes fun of it by mentioning ‘chainsaws’ is prohibited?” asked FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. “Both should be protected, but the double standard and lack of respect for freedom of speech in this case is simply staggering.”
Robinson said his intention was only to encourage a conversation about what is and isn’t considered politically correct. “My goal in this was never to get rid of the ‘Monthly Rag,’ just to get people talking about something that I think is obnoxious,” he said. “There’s a culture here on campus where some opinions are considered to be sacrosanct — such as the feminist agenda, if you’re religious or against abortion, or if you have anything positive to say about the president — you can utter any of these words on campus and it’s perfectly acceptable.”
Some students on campus agree with Robinson and have started a petition process to encourage campus officials to stop censoring free speech on campus. Robinson called the disciplinary process he experienced similar to a “Soviet show trial.”
“It would set a standard for speech whereby anyone who says something that offends the right group of people can be censored by the administration,” he said. “We need to fight that on principle alone.”
Yeah... mentioning the Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle probably was a bad idea (although I'm getting a little tired of every little gun reference metastasizing into a full blown SWAT issue).
But then again, I really have no desire to read some feminist diatribe on tooth-filled V-parts, packaging (now there's an odd fad) or a "Bitch Manifesto" (and what the pigeoned is a "gender binary?"). At the very least, I wouldn't be inclined to befriend a woman who matched the manifest tenor of the Monthly Rag article. I mean, I'm not a "barefoot in the kitchen" kind of pigeon, but a castrated cucumber-packing man-lady who stands when she pees doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs.
(The fact the Hummingbird has me whipped from here to eternity is irrelevant).
Besides, who let 'em in to the bathroom in the first place? The plain, stainless-steel stall is probably the last bastion of sacred manhood. A singular place where I can find my center while poring over the latest Foreign Policy magazine (or a late 80's edition of Cracked).
The problem here, though, is the .50 cal is an independent variable (or is it a dependent variable? I can't remember). In other words, if the rifle verbiage was not in the document, would the students still be facing sanctions? But even if we take away the variable, it's apparent the Monthly Bag struck a raw nerve with those who think free speech comes qualified on the Colorado College campus.
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"Yeah... mentioning the Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle probably was a bad idea... "
Why? The weapon would seem to be well-suited to both (very) big game hunting (the usual NRA excuse) and to defense against tyrannical government (the Founders' primary reason for the inclusion of the Second Amendment).
Posted by: David | 04 April 2008 at 13:27
I've seen the point made on FIRE's website many times, that two of the most fundamental elements of political discourse, parody and satire, hell outright ridicule are under constant attack on campuses nationwide. Those things are fundamental elements of free, protected speech - actually the entire phrase "free speech" has been so devalued (thank you ACLU for starters), that from now on I am going to say "Constitutionally-protected speech" because to me, "free" speech means "free to be an idiot..." but I digress.
Here's what I've noticed about leftists, angry liberals, feminists and the race-obsessed: their sense of humor is non-existent.
They also have no class, and little in the way of common sense: I am sure it has never occurred to any of the self-proclaimed "bitches" in the "Monthly Rag" (speaking of no class...) that the reason they may face opposition in the workplace or a lack of acceptance may actually have less to do with their gender, race, sexual orientation or whatever than it may have to do with their BEHAVIOR.
“Bitches … clomp up stairs, stride when they walk and don’t worry about where they put their legs when they sit. They have loud voices and often use them. Bitches are not pretty.”
You know what? As a working stiff, I care not to associate myself with people who act obnoxious. I want to associate myself with people I _enjoy_ being around.
I don't _enjoy_ or get much done around self-proclaimed or de facto "bitches" usually because they spend more time being a "bitch" than they do WORKING.
As a boss, I have better things to do than wasting my time counseling troops on _basic common courtesy and human decency_ Those rare events are usually called Letters of Counseling in my book.
Besides, a "manifesto" like that, which I have every RIGHT not be assaulted with while I'm taking care of my morning glory, in the MEN's room, the LAST SANCTUARY WE'VE BEEN LEFT WITH, simply DESERVES ridicule.
Hey "bitch" here's an idea, try common courtesy and being friendly. You might be surprised at how people, male or female, react around you...
As far as I'm concerned, the heck with the .50 cal, I'm for some 155mm lovin' on this one...
Posted by: MOGS | 04 April 2008 at 15:46
155mm? Well, never mind that at West Point, there were stall newsletters which featured the Automatic Weapon of the Week. Or my URINTEL product at my last base.
If you want to talk about patriarchal, male, phallo-centric weaponry used to perpetuate a power structure in which the Western science-based society symbolically and actually rapes a matriarchal Eastern arts-centric culture, there's only one way to go...LGM-30G. If you don't know what that is, ask your parents.
That, and the weapon is so damn big it couldn't possibly be interpreted as a threat from anything smaller than a nation-state.
In a larger sense, these Courts of Star Chamber on the campus level--usually masked as "forums" or "hearings" are used as enforcement mechanisms for downright anti-Constitutional efforts to quash political incorrectness. Score one for academic discourse.
Posted by: antitool | 04 April 2008 at 22:48