Text of JHU-women-are-fat 'article'

Reposted here, since the JHU Newsletter pulled the article and the angry comments it inspired.

Local Bison Bear All at Phi Kappa Psi’s Annual Lingerave (Opinion Section)
By Greg Sgammato

Last Thursday, September 9th, Phi Kappa Psi hosted their annual Lingerave party, a celebration of scantily clad women and booming techno music. The event was by many accounts a success, but unfortunately featured a disproportionate amount of fat chicks.

Under normal circumstances, fat chicks at a Hopkins party are neither a novelty nor a major problem. The student body has become accustomed to seeing the occasional bison at Pike; as long as direct interaction isn't necessitated, most Blue Jays are content with simply letting the livestock graze.

Such a dynamic, though, is fundamentally shifted when certain parameters change. In the case of the Lingerave, clothing - the last defense against the hordes of 'grenades' that inhabit this University - was explicitly discouraged. And herein lies the source of the problem.

Perhaps the brothers of Phi Psi actually thought that most girls at their party would be attractive. To be fair, there certainly were plenty of good-looking ladies in attendance. The problem, though, was that these girls were, by and large, the ones who remained clothed.

Unfortunately for the rest of the party, those who were most adamant about letting it all hang loose had a few too many to let hang loose. This may seem counterintuitive; why would the biggest chicks wear the least clothing? These are girls who wear sweatshirts on sweltering summer days just to hide their - admittedly substantial - arms. The answer, of course, can be found in the staple of any decent frat party: alcohol.

Alcohol boosts self-confidence; anyone who has shotgunned a few beers or dared to sip on some jungle juice can attest to this fact. Such a phenomenon, though, is exacerbated when we throw fat chicks into the mix. When buffalo - especially those who frequent frat parties - consume alcohol, they undergo an extreme and sudden inflation of self-image.

In a matter of minutes, the girl whose leggings expose a glimpse into the darker side of humanity will equate herself to Megan Fox. She - though 'it' may be more appropriate - will flaunt it like she's got it, when in fact she never had it and probably never will. She will transcend 'sloppy' and become a force to be reckoned with, an 8-on-the-Richter-Scale Neuroscience major with no test on Monday, a full fridge and an empty bed.

Needless to say, a drunk plus-size is scary enough. Yet put her in an environment in which clothing is actively discouraged and we have added insult to an already egregious injury. The end result? Fat chicks running around the Phi Psi house wearing nothing but a bra and an unfortunate pair of shorts.

Such was the inevitable downside of the Lingerave. What's most disturbing about the situation - apart from the sweat - was that it could not have been prevented.

But, you say, certainly it could have been avoided. Not the case.

In analyzing this problem, we must enter the mentality of the fat chick. She knows that, given her current situation, she will not gain admission to a frat party of her own accord. No one in his right mind would, given the chance, admit a herd of rhinos to his party. So - and here is where the hippo is at her most wily - the fat chick will systematically befriend hot chicks.

Such a relationship is symbiotic and, as such, makes intuitive sense. Hot girls associate with fat chicks as a means to boost their level of relative sex appeal. Fat chicks hang out with more aesthetically pleasing girls to leech off the perks that come naturally with their biological success. If, in the near future, one determines a means by which we can separate hot chicks from the heavy, heavy burden of their larger peers, a Nobel will surely follow.

In any case, fat chicks and hot chicks often go hand-in-hand. When they travel together to a frat party, those brothers working the door are forced to let the elephants inside; to refuse them would be incurring the wrath of their hot friends. And once inside, the damage has already been done. It's only a matter of time until the mammoths monopolize the space on the dance floor.

In the future, one can think of at least one alteration to make; indeed, perhaps advertising a party as a "Lingerave" will bring about more bad than good. While seeing a hot chick in only her underwear is undoubtedly a treat, seeing a blimp without the welcome shield of clothing is a much worse fate for everyone at the party. A seasoned veteran should have the confidence to wait until the bedroom to see his girl without clothing; don't subject the majority to the tyranny of the - funnily enough - enormous minority.

There is, of course, one more option: get obliterated. You'll be surprised how far you'll go with a half-naked wildebeest.

Original link and text provided by Sara Luterman, Feminist Alliance:
http://media.www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2010/09/16/Opinion/Local.Bison.Bear.All.At.Phi.Kappa.Psis.Annual.Lingerave-3933236-page2.shtml

American University rape apologist reminds us why feminism is needed

Monday's edition of American University's The Eagle featured an article titled "Dealing with AU's anti-sex brigade", which does a great job at offending victims of date rape. Here's a snippet of the article:

"Let’s get this straight: any woman who heads to an EI [an unaffilated fraternity] party as an anonymous onlooker, drinks five cups of the jungle juice, and walks back to a boy’s room with him is indicating that she wants sex, OK? To cry “date rape” after you sober up the next morning and regret the incident is the equivalent of pulling a gun to someone’s head and then later claiming that you didn’t ever actually intend to pull the trigger.

“Date rape” is an incoherent concept. There’s rape and there’s not-rape, and we need a line of demarcation. It’s not clear enough to merely speak of consent, because the lines of consent in sex — especially anonymous sex — can become very blurry. If that bothers you, then stick with Pat Robertson and his brigade of anti-sex cavemen! Don’t jump into the sexual arena if you can’t handle the volatility of its practice!"

Understandably, this has sparked mass amounts of controversy throughout the AU community. I'm hesitant to give this article any more attention that it has already received, but I think it is important to remind people why there is a need for feminism. As Jezelbel outlines, the writer's opinion is not an original one. There will always be people like this and it is our job to help people block out their voices.

Former FMF intern, Maggie, has written her opinion on The Eagle's blog.

Unfortunately, the writer's 15 minutes are not up. The attention he is receiving is exactly what he wants, but on the other hand silence is not the solution. This is not the first time his misogynist beliefs have found there way into the pages of the paper.

Here are some letters to the editor written by members of the AU community. Also, take a look at the comments on the original article. *Note that they all occured in the 3 hours after the article was posted, before the comments were disabled.*

Cross Post: "Sex Really" Really Misses the Mark

The following post is crossposted from our friend and colleague Shelby Knox, who attended the SexTech conference this past weekend. The original can be found over at This Is Misogyny. Thanks for tipping us off, Shelby!



There are some organizations in the progressive community that regularly use casual misogyny for gain without caring what values it undermines. See: PETA.

But when Sex Really, a project of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, showed this video, meant to engage 20 somethings, to the sex education community at Sex:Tech this weekend, many of us were open mouthed with shock. If you teach sex education on the ground for any amount of time you know one of the biggest challenges is getting young people to unlearn gender stereotypes around sex.

If you don’t know the ones I’m talking about, Sex Really has done a pretty good job of laying them out as fact: men are pigs with raging hormones that can only process sex on a Neanderthal level. They sit around and demean women because they lack the emotional capacity to have substantive relationships. And women are too stupid, or so focused on “catching a man,” that they don’t even notice their dude’s a d-bag.

What’s the point of this triggering, heteronormative train wreck? It seems to be that you better use protection because the person you’re sleeping with is such a jerk you wouldn’t wanna have their babies.

It’s worth mentioning that Sex Really is headed by Laura Sessions Stepp, rape apologist and virginity crusader extraordinaire. Her work has riled up the feminist community before over her hysteria-inducing case study passed off as research on the “hookup culture” and the ridiculous idea of “gray rape.” Therefore this video isn’t a total shock — and her hiring might be yet another sign it’s time for the sex education community to take a big step away from the increasingly conservative National Campaign — but it’s still unacceptable.

This is video 1 in a 12 part series. Young people really can’t deal with 11 more slaps in the face like this one. Go to the video and comment - tell Sex Really to ask actual youth what they need and want. You can also shoot Ms. Stepp an email: laura.stepp@sexreally.com

She's Not a "Real Woman"

The UK's Guardian interviewed over 700 men about their experiences with prostitution. Some of the responses were pretty disturbing. The thoughts and views of some of the men exhibited how prominent misogyny is in our society.

The main issue is that men are able to distinguish prostitutes from "real women". Because these women are willing to do things other women would not, they must be lesser humans because they must have something wrong with them. These women are doing them a favor by performing sexual acts that others would not, but instead of being thankful, men lose respect for them.

Men see sex as something they're taking from women so they should be left with less than they started with. "I don't want them to get any pleasure. I am paying for it and it is her job to give me pleasure. If she enjoys it I would feel cheated." Just because you're paying her doesn't mean she can't enjoy it at the same time. That's like saying people shouldn't get paid if they enjoy their job.

Lastly, men see prostitution as an alternative to rape. They make it seem as if it's one or the other so we should be thankful they chose to have sex with someone who's "willing". You can hardly say that these women are "willing", especially when most of them have been sold either into sex trafficking or exploited by their pimp. Many of the men interviewed admitted that they knew that the prostitute was not there on her own will, but didn't think they should do anything about it and still had sex with the women/girls.

Hey guys, do us a favor. Save your money and make the effort to find somebody who actually wants to have sex with you. Oh, and by the way, before treating these women like scum remember each and every one of them is someone's daughter.

More at Jezebel

Photo by Adam Crowe via Flickr