

After Class, Skimpy Equality - credo
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/fashion/after-class-skimpy-equality-motherlode.html?pagewanted=all

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wyclif
Sorry, but my eyes glazed over as I read this. It's utter pabulum, the kind of
sexual politics you'd expect from any second-tier college Gender Studies
department. I flagged it because I don't think it's really all that
interesting, nor do I believe it belongs on HN.

It's 2011. Women have earned the right to be who they want to be. The piece
also ignores the fact that women easily outnumber men on the average college
campus in the US. Women earn more doctorates and master's degrees than men
today. But what this woman cannot get her head around is that men have the
upper hand in the game of sexual brinkmanship. Sex is cheap, as has been
discussed previously here on HN and elsewhere. Cheap sex means the value of it
has been debased, and the power women could once wield over the sexual
transaction is diminished:

<http://www.slate.com/id/2286240/pagenum/all/#p2>

Now, do I think it's insulting to ask women to dress up as hookers? Sure it
is. I wasn't raised to treat women badly or with anything less than total
respect. But these ladies have got to start taking some responsibility for
their lot in life. For God's sake, go read some Camille Paglia! Women do
everything that men do today, so revel in it. Stop complaining about how
betrayed you are by the feminist movement.

------
maratd
> As parents around the country send their children to campuses for the start
> of another academic year, what are we to make of the fact that lessons of
> equality, respect and self-worth have been heard when it comes to the
> classroom, but lost somewhere on the way to the clubs?

Drivel. The feminist movement was about the liberty to live a life, any life,
that a woman wants. If a woman wants to dress like a slutty nurse on
Halloween, it certainly doesn't concern some snooty reporter.

------
blahedo
I had a female student a few years ago who was complaining about the sexism of
the themed parties at one fraternity (e.g. "red light", where the girls were
supposed to dress as hookers, "pimps n hos", same story, ...). Knowing that
she was in a sorority, I asked whether her sorority sisters shared her
opinion---"more or less", she said.

Now, there were only a few sororities at this small school, and they
collectively included close to 20% of the female student body (and a higher
proportion of the party-going female students). So I suggested getting with
the other sororities and boycotting any party with a sexist theme. Those
parties would shut down SO FAST.

Her response was, "we've thought about that, but if we don't go to _their_
parties, what else would we do?" There's a lot packed into that question. I
didn't have an immediate answer then, and that whole conversation has stuck in
my mind and comes to the fore whenever I read an article like this.

This isn't a problem that can be solved from above.

~~~
da_dude4242
>Her response was, "we've thought about that, but if we don't go to their
parties, what else would we do?" There's a lot packed into that question. I
didn't have an immediate answer then, and that whole conversation has stuck in
my mind and comes to the fore whenever I read an article like this.

Throw your own parties.

------
mkrecny
I graduated from Duke last year. I had moved all the way from Australia to
attend the school (a great honor, I thought) and was pretty unprepared for the
level of idiocy I encountered in the (largely frat dominated) social scene.
Girls really are just objects of carnal fascination to many of these guys.

But humans today have changed very little physiologically in the last 50, 000
years. As a species I don't think we're 'wired' for inter-gender equality.
It's a great ideal - but stepping out of the male-female inequality simply
makes many girls uncomfortable. In these cases, why pursue it?

------
da_dude4242
asymmetry != inequity

