At thirty-years-old, I continue to pride myself in the gender work that I do in academia and in the community. I teach two introductory women’s studies courses; one as an assistant instructor at Barnard, and the other at an urban after-school community center. I have a master’s degree in Women’s Studies. I’ve written about gender inequality countless times before. I’ve held my own in discussions about gender discrimination at conferences, dinner tables, and Twitter streams. I do this work everyday. I don’t expect accolades for what I do or for who I am. What I do expect, however, is that after a long day of studying, writing, teaching, and talking about gender discrimination, I can go to a community gym and play ball with guys without my gender being an issue.
So why, on Monday night, was I crying because some skinny ‘white’ guy with a clipboard questioned my ability to play basketball?
I’ve always been that tough girl who stayed on the court after being told “your attitude problem is unbecoming for a girl” or told to “leave that gender equality shit off the court.” I usually respond by trash talking or by scoring multiple jumpers on dudes with sexist commentary. I’ve laughed it off. I’ve also gotten into my share of verbal fights with guys who have disrespected me on the court simply because I have a vagina and wear a sports bra.
Upon approaching the entrance of an NYC public school that hosts a local intramural basketball league, I did not expect that I would be interrogated about why I’m there and patronized because I showed up.
“I’m here to play.” I said.
Disgusting UVM Fraternity Questionnaire Sparks Outrage
Today finds me crawling out of blog hibernation to point ya’ll to the latest installment of “College Boys Just Want to Have Fun…By Demeaning Women and Making Jokes About Rape.” Today’s episode takes place at the University of Vermont, where a puzzling and revolting survey was recently distributed to the brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon. We were sent a copy of the questionnaire, which mostly consists of benign questions like name, birthday, major, amount of time with SigEp and favorite SigEp memories, hobbies, future goals, etc. It’s actually kind of nerdy and cute, until you get to the final three “personal questions.”
We come across a lot of gross stuff at SAFER, but the contrast here makes this particularly jarring and offensive. It’s not the usual litany of purposefully offensive garbage; it’s a seemingly legit, “normal” survey with this one horrifying nuggets thrown in at the end. The normalization of the question—the nonchalance—is so…disturbing.
As often happens with these kind of “frat shenanigans,” the survey made it into the hands of other folks on campus, who were understandably upset and are taking action. This petition was started last night by “Feminists from UVM” and is already up to 375 signatures. This is what they have to say:
Sign the UVM petition and look for updates over at FedUp Vermont, a local grassroots feminist organization. The story hasn’t hit the news yet (campus or otherwise) so there is no word on whether the school will take any action or if the men of Sigma Phi Epsilon have anything to say for themselves, but we’ll let you know if they do. Something tells me this was supposed to “funny.” Ha. Ha. Ha.
Cross-posted from Change Happens