I'm all for fighting to improve women's rights and gender equality across campus. But sometimes, those efforts turn hypocritical and men have to start fighting back.
Witness "objectification." It's a fairly well-accepted criticism of American popular culture that women are all too often viewed as sexual objects instead of as individual people. I'll be the first one to admit that this type of behavior isn't something that we should necessarily endorse.
But any reasonable person ought to admit that this happens to men, too. And even if you can't agree with this simple premise, the underlying logic still holds: If it's wrong for men to objectify women, then it should be wrong for women to objectify men, period.
Duke, however, seems to disagree. The notion of gender equality is far from prevalent around campus. For example, there's the forced indoctrination of freshman men about how to treat women and prevent sexual assault. In principle, it's a great idea, but when the leaders of these discussions treat men like idiots and pigs for no good reason-and when freshman women don't receive a similar, reciprocal education-there's gender bias at work.
(I was personally reprimanded for lack of attention by a senior administrator of the Women's Center for chatting with a friend after another instructor told us the exercise was over. Interestingly, she told me that she would relish the day I met with her on allegations of rape because it "would not be pretty" for me. What's that saying, R-E-S-P-E-C-T?)
Moreover, a good part of the dialogue about sexual assault and hooking up on campus is avidly anti-men, with student advocates turning guys who don't seem to care enough about these issues into evil villains. I know I for one have been harassed for being a privileged, white male who apparently only cares about misogynizing women for no good reason other than the obvious stereotypes my gender, skin color and dress apparently connote.
But the crown jewel of Duke's gender hypocrisy is Alpha Phi's King of Hearts event, a humiliating and dehumanizing dance show of male pledges held annually at Shooters. For some reason, the Panhellenic Association finds it morally acceptable for a sorority to host an event in which hundreds of Duke students judge freshman males as sex objects, instead of as individually valuable human beings.
For instance, at last week's event, unsatisfying boys were thoroughly booed by girls who found them insufficiently attractive to hold the stage and their attention. An angry spectator was even threatened with being kicked out by the female student in charge for complaining that one contestant was indecently exposing his private parts.
What's worse, one participant I interviewed-who wished to remain anonymous because of the lingering embarrassment and deafening boos that still haunt his dreams at night-was thoroughly ashamed at being pressured into stripping in public for demanding young girls. That he was unable to satisfy their every desire has shattered his self-esteem irreparably.
This type of behavior is fundamentally appalling and hypocritical. For an institution that has consistently campaigned against the mistreatment of sorority women on campus-especially vis-a-vis fraternities and their events-to willingly violate their own scruples for the sake of entertainment is beyond my comprehension.
Nevertheless, I accept that consent goes a long way. If guys want to participate, by all means let them. But this goes both ways: If girls want to be involved in certain events of their own free will, wish them luck and get out of their way. Sororities shouldn't hide behind the Panhel banner when it gives them strength and ditch their gender equality shtick when they want men to play their games.
If Duke is truly tolerant and legitimately interested in making headway toward true gender equality, it must resist the impetus to allow the furor over women's rights to result in further gender inequality. Men must be treated equally and civilly in order for any sort of progress to be made.
But if you want to treat me like an object, go ahead. I won't complain. Just let me do the same to you. Remember, equality is a two-way street: It would be incredibly hypocritical to accept the double-standards that benefit you if you criticized the ones that do you harm.
Jon Detzel is a Trinity senior. His column runs every other Tuesday.
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