LETTER: Remarks in college minutes make Backpage criticism hypocritical

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The recent controversy over the "Rice Women Are Like" Backpage has brought into light a problem I feel is perhaps just as important as that of sexism. What I mean here is a gross display of hypocrisy.

In the Nov. 22, the Thresher published an article by members of ADVANCE expressing their outrage at the Nov. 8 Backpage. The letter reads as a litany against the "irresponsible and cruel" statements with "misogynist jokes [contributing] to an atmosphere that condones and/or encourages harassment of women on this campus." They go on to expound their offense at the Backpage editors' "abuse of freedom of speech and cavalier attitude that [they] can get away with bigotry simply by saying `We're only kidding,' or, `It's just a joke.'"

One of the members signed is Felicia Martin, a Sid Richardson College sophomore and one of the college's secretaries. The secretaries at the colleges are responsible for writing minutes covering the items and issues of importance in each council meeting. Incorporated within these minutes are usually attempts at humor targeted at members of the college.

Obviously, these minutes are not a far cry from a typical issue of The Rice Thresher (Backpage included, of course).

In the latest two SRC minutes (which, I add, are very much indicative of all the minutes written by our secretaries), Ms. Martin has used the words "bitch," "ho" and "whore" eight times to characterize SRC women. She refers to another female student simply by a feature of the student's anatomy, "breasts."

When it came to her attention that college members were taking offense at her statements, she replied simply, "It's just a joke." This same opinion was held by numerous other members of the college as well, many of whom have also protested the Backpage.

Whether or not resting on the supposed humor of statements is a legitimate excuse to maintain they should be taken lightly, it is very hypocritical to selectively find relevance in saying something is only a joke. In Ms. Martin's own words, she states, "There is no justification in hiding behind the excuse that incendiary comments are just harmless jokes."

Although she and others reject the use of humor as justification for the Backpage in question, they seem to have no qualms against the "It's just a joke" mentality in justifying statements against individuals in the very same demographic they claim they are trying to protect.

I do not mean this as a personal attack, but being specific about the issue of hypocrisy and humor best demonstrates that humor isn't definitely directed to disparage a group. This is shown by individuals, one having made disparaging comments thinking they were not so, and others having condoned such comments, going on to attack those doing the very same thing in the very same way.

I honestly do not believe Ms. Martin or the Backpage editors have meant to offend anyone in their attempts at entertaining the student body.

However, if the Backpage editors were truly adding to an environment of hostility or discrimination toward women, then Ms. Martin and those who have spoken out against the Backpage but not against her minutes have fostered the very atmosphere of harassment against women they have so vehemently and repeatedly protested in recent days. What is true is that the nature of the humor in Ms. Martin's minutes and in the recent Backpage is the same. The only difference is whom the jokes are about.

Robinson Vu

SRC '99

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the December 6, 1996 issue.

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