Oh, very many things.
Today I attended a protest of a racist, sexist, rape-supporting magazine that’s distributed on campus. A few weeks ago when some pro-life goons came to SDSU and were accosting women near the free speech steps, some women from my department went out and peacefully protested with signs, and what do you know? Within twenty minutes, the group had wandered off.
I wish I could say the same of today, but I can’t. While our protest was peaceful (and we actually got into some great, productive dialogue with the men handing out the magazine), things didn’t end up going so well. For some reason, students at SDSU will be repulsed by a guy walking around in a doctor’s suit with a bloody syringe asking women if he can abort their babies, but when it’s jokes about LGBTQ folks and raping women, it’s “just humor.” I will never understand the way some folks’ brains work.
I’d like to talk more about it, but I don’t think I’m able to at the moment. I will say that I’m really in awe of the way our community of passionate feminists comes out of the woodwork to fight against hatred and bigotry in all its forms; within moments of hearing that the newspaper was being handed out, a group of us had already mobilized and were on our way to protest. Thinking about the on-the-ground commitment that sometimes seems missing from feminist scholarship, it’s nice to know that there are folks in this feminist community who care enough to get out of the textbooks/offices/papers/their own stuff and take a stand for a larger cause. That whole solidarity thing? Is pretty fucking rad.
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The criticisms of my students would serve as a good warning to visitors of Seeworthy: she talks too fast, she's too hard on us, she assigns too much work, and you have to be a dyke to get a good grade.
In other words, I'm a big, fat, queer, feminist meanie, and I am totally out to get you. Graaagh!
Earlier this year we had a preacher man come on the designed free speech zone on campus for an entire week. He, and other preacher men, literally preached, yelled and harassed gays, women and anyone else who didn’t live as if it were the Dark Ages for hours on end each day (they reserved the space for 5 - 6 hours each day).
A few religious groups tried to counter-protest against him, and campus police made them disband. Apparently, they hadn’t procured the proper permits to exercise their freedom of speech on the free speech zone. But the campus never let anyone know that this group, who had no affiliation with our college whatsoever, had asked to come to our campus, despite the fact that this group is well-known on campuses nationwide for inciting protest and violence. A guy in South Carolina sparred with the main preacher man after the preacher man called his girlfriend a slut.
I wish people in my university were as passionate as those in your college seem to be.
Rachel: We had a preacher like that on campus when I was in school. He would accost women, ask if they were virgins, then call them sluts and scream that they were going to hell. That and many other anti-feminist, anti-LGTB, anti-Catholic, and even some anti-semitic and racists rhetoric. Many women were driven to tears, a few guys got into trouble for getting physical, and the school ignored all complaints. One night a group had enough. They went out to his usual corner in the middle of the night, drew a chalk outline of a body on the ground, splashed a little red tempra paint and scattered a few of his booklets near the hand of the chalk outline. He never showed up again. I’m non-violent and don’t think that even the threat of violence is a workable solution to anything, but I have to say that it was a much more peaceful walk to class after that.
I co-wrote this article with a friend of mine for a local alternative weekly here in Cincinnati. I gave him the byline since I work for the primary newspaper in town and I didn’t think it’s allowed to write for a competitor (it’s my photo, too, they just messed up the credit). I wonder if its the same guy; he lives in an RV and travels to campuses nationwide with his wife.
Oh, by the way, no official on campus seemed to think him saying rape is okay because women were “asking for it” and that they should just “close their legs” was inciting or promoting violence or went against any kind of campus rules. It’s all “free speech.”