LETTER: Beer-Bike article includes mysoginistic phrasing

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by Joe Keithley

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To the editor:

In George Hatoun's article, "Brown, Jones, WRC, St. Arnold's win big" ( Thresher , April 12), Hatoun identifies the Beer-Bike men's race as "the afternoon's centerpiece." The time is past when such a misogynistic comment can go unnoticed.

Hatoun has clearly implied that the men's race is the most important of the three races. This idea is not only offensive in general, but is also insulting to all female competitors.

While Jones College is very proud of its men's team and claims to have regained the championship, there is no reason to deny the same title to Brown College, whose women performed excellently and demonstrated clear superiority.

I'm sure that the average Brown member has an opinion of which race was "the afternoon's centerpiece." They might not all agree with Hatoun.

As a member of the Jones pit crew, I've worked closely with both our teams and know that the Jones Fast Women train just as hard and take the competition every bit as seriously as do the Hard Men.

We rallied around our victorious men's team, and there's no doubt that we'll cheer just as loudly for a women's victory in 1997.

I hope that Hatoun doesn't really think that male competition is the more interesting or important.

Such an event as Beer-Bike in such a liberal environment as a college campus should be a time when people are ready to appreciate competition without regard for the gender of the competitors.

Joe Keithley

Jones '97

Editor's note: The article was proofed by numerous staff members -- male and female. None of them found the phrase to be sexist in nature. The Thresher apologizes to those who interpreted it in that manner.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the April 19, 1996 issue.

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